Desalinization Booms

Bloomberg (h/t nc links):

Investment in installations that make drinking water from the sea will jump to a record in 2016 from $5 billion last year and $8.9 billion in 2012, according to forecasts by Global Water Intelligence, an industry consultant. While that’s a fraction of spending on carbon-free energy generation, it’s gaining traction among managers of environmental services funds.
“Water right now is a strain on this planet more than carbon,” Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) Chief Executive Officer Andrew Liveris said in an interview this month in London. “We mismanage water terribly. It’s going to be a big issue.”
Prompting the boom is technology that uses less energy to create potable water as well as a crush of companies entering an industry and driving down costs. From France’s Veolia Environnement SA (VIE) to IDE Technologies Ltd. of Israel and Hyflux Ltd. (HYF) of Singapore, competition to make money from duplicating the Earth’s water cycle is pushing shares of the companies in the water industry near their 2007 highs....
Reverse osmosis has about 45 percent of the market, with traditional distillation being the main technology used in most of the remainder, New Energy Finance estimates.
A new process called forward osmosis works at lower pressures using less heat and power than so-called RO facilities and may take market share within 10 years, said Robert McGinnis, founder of Oasys Water Inc., a Boston company whose equipment is being used by American oil and gas producers.
Modern Water Plc (MWG), a British purveyor of forward osmosis equipment, estimates the technology could cut the cost of desalinating by as much as 30 percent.
“This is the next big step forward,” said Neil McDougall, chairman of the company, which has built small plants from Gibraltar to Oman. McGinnis of Oasys says the technology will be “hugely transformative.”

 Water will be one of the big issues of the 21st century, which will put the Midwest in an enviable position.