
California Is Building the Largest Solar Desalination Plant in the U.S. - cryptoz
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3051087/california-is-building-the-countrys-largest-solar-desalination-plant
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hugh4
Why have I never heard of a Direct Public Offering before? Is it less legally
onerous than a full-on IPO?

Personally I wouldn't trust my money to a company with unproven technology
promising a six percent dividend but hey, good luck to them.

Still, if it's such a good investment why haven't they been able to attract
big money instead of selling dribs and drabs to possibly-naive investors?

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gamblor956
There is an exception from SEC registration for stock offerings that are
wholly within the state of the company making the offering (i.e., only
advertised and available to residents of that state). State stock registration
requirements are usually far simpler than SEC registration requirements.

They likely haven't been able to attract major funding since inland
desalinization isn't as sexy as coastal desalinization. Moreover, unlike major
utility projects, their revenue growth is hampered by their ability to scale
up across hundreds or thousands of installations with no built-in mechanism
for cost recovery.

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pjc50
It claims they don't discharge brine, but doesn't explain where the salt ends
up? Nonetheless solar desalination looks like an extremely sensible technology
approach in California.

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geomark
They say they turn the salt into useable products. Such as?

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seanmcdirmid
Salt is quite valuable if it can be refined. Pairing salt production with
desalination is common.

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fulafel
[http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/salt/mcs-20...](http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/salt/mcs-2015-salt.pdf)
says solar salt is $50/ton ($0.05/kg). I doubt that's even break-even price
after transport for a small scale producer if that's how much the commodity
broker will resell it at. It's maybe same or less than the price of sand?

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seanmcdirmid
Sand is considered quite valuable also...where value is relative of course.
India in particular has a big problem with illegal sand dredging.

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JoeAltmaier
I'm hoping somebody will combine methane hydrate harvesting with desalination
- both seaside activities that serve large populations, cross-investing,
bootstrapping one another. And making clean water and energy truly fungible
commodities.

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Shivetya
the uses of non potable water are immense so the need to purify is simpler can
be a good extension of the work this company is doing.

