VOA科学技术2023--Saudi Arabia Aims to Meet Water Needs with Solar Power

Saudi Arabia Aims to Meet Water Needs with Solar Power

Saudi Arabia is a dry place. In many areas, people there depend on turning saltwater from the Persian Gulf¹ and Red Sea into drinkable, fresh water. That process is called desalination².

Desalination centers supply drinking water to cities and towns in the kingdom. However, observers say the process of desalination is not good for the environment because it mostly uses oil and gas.

One goal of Crown Prince Mohammed bin³ Salman is to make Saudia Arabia a leader in business and tourism. For this, the country must meet growing demands for water.

But Saudi Arabia's environmental goal is to reach net-zero emissions⁴ by 2060. So, the country's leaders say they want to reduce the amount of carbon gases produced. Some people say carbon gases are warming the Earth's atmosphere.

A desalination plant in the eastern part of the country uses solar panels. The Jazlah plant is the first in Saudi Arabia to use solar power for desalination on a large scale. Officials said the panels will help save 60,000 tons of carbon emissions each year.

More projects like Jazlah are needed because Prince Mohammed has another goal. He wants to increase the population to 100 million people by 2040. The country's current population is about 32.2 million.

Marco Arcelli is chief of ACWA Power, the company that operates the Jazlah plant. He said, usually "the population grows, and then the quality of life of the population grows." That means more water will be needed in the future.

Using desalination is a "do or die" issue, said historian Michael Christopher Low. He has studied the kingdom's struggle with water at the University of Utah in the United States. Low said this issue is a matter of survival for Saudia Arabia. At the same time, he added, "there are limits" to how desalination can be done so that it does not affect the environment.

Current use of fossil fuels

The Saline Water Conversion⁵ Corporation (or SWCC) is a government company that operates desalination and power plants in Saudi Arabia. The company says it produces 11.5 million cubic meters each day at 30 centers. But growth has come at a cost, especially at centers that use oil or gas.

The AFP press agency reports that, by 2010, Saudi desalination plants were using 1.5 million barrels of oil per day. That is more than 15 percent of today's production.

The SWCC said it wants to cut 37 million metric tons of carbon emissions by 2025. The company hopes to do this by moving away from plants that use heat to separate water from salt to plants like Jazlah that use solar electricity-powered systems.

The SWCC said in its latest report that solar power is expected to expand to 770 megawatts compared to 120 megawatts today. But how long that will take is unclear.

In the future, there is little doubt Saudi Arabia will be able to build the systems required to produce the water it needs.

"They have already done it in some of the most challenging settings, like massively desalinating on the Red Sea and providing desalinated water up to the highlands of the holy cities in Mecca and Medina," said Laurent Lambert. He is with the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.

At desalination plants across the kingdom, Saudi employees understand how important their work is.

The Ras Al-Khair center produces 1.1 million cubic meters of water per day with 740,000 from heat technology and the rest from another process. The plant struggles to make enough fresh water because of high demand.

Much of the water goes to Riyadh. That city requires 1.6 million cubic meters per day. It could require as much as 6 million cubic meters a day by 2030, said one employee who was not permitted to talk to the media and remains⁶ unidentified.

A short history of Saudi desalination

Saudi Arabia first turned to desalination more than 100 years ago. During the rule of the Ottoman Empire, administrators⁷ used filtration machines for Muslim travelers observing the Hajj who had to deal with a lack of water and cholera⁸.

Drinking water has been a problem for Saudi Arabia since its founding in 1932. This led to geological studies that also helped identify the country's huge supplies of oil and gas. Leaders since have supervised the birth of the kingdom's modern desalination systems beginning in 1970.

Words in This Story

desalination –n. the process of removing salt from saltwater to make drinkable water

tourism –n. the industry of providing food and services for people who travel for pleasure

net-zero emissions –expression the idea of having the release of carbon gasses balance the amount of carbon removed from the atmosphere

solar panel –n. a device that captures the sun's light and changes it into electrical current

scale –n. the level or amount of something

barrel –n. a measure used in the oil trade

challenging –adj. difficult or hard to do

filtration –n. the process of removing something from water or another substance, usually to purify it

1 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

2 desalination   

n.脱盐(作用)

参考例句：

• Crops can be grown on this land after desalination. 这片土地经过脱盐就可以种植庄稼了。
• One source is by desalination-taking the salt out of salt water to make it drinkable. 淡水的来源之一是使水淡化--把含盐的水中的盐份去掉，使之能够饮用。

3 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

4 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

5 conversion   

n.转化，转换，转变

参考例句：

• He underwent quite a conversion.他彻底变了。
• Waste conversion is a part of the production process.废物处理是生产过程的一个组成部分。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 administrators   

n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师

参考例句：

• He had administrators under him but took the crucial decisions himself. 他手下有管理人员，但重要的决策仍由他自己来做。 来自辞典例句
• Administrators have their own methods of social intercourse. 办行政的人有他们的社交方式。 来自汉英文学 - 围城

8 cholera   

n.霍乱

参考例句：

• The cholera outbreak has been contained.霍乱的发生已被控制住了。
• Cholera spread like wildfire through the camps.霍乱在营地里迅速传播。