On: A vision for the alleviation of water scarcity in ...

[warcher]

What I'm saying is that the freshwater reservoir is a totally free grid scale battery for a desal plant. No need to save it, just make fresh water while the sun shines and drink it whenever.

[adrianmonk → warcher]

Energy storage would serve two purposes:

(1) Ensure you always have fresh water available since you're continuously producing it.

(2) Reduce the size of desalination plant you must build by allowing you to run it 24x7.

You're right that you can just store the fresh water, so batteries aren't needed for #1. But the article is talking about how to achieve #2.

[warcher → adrianmonk]

Yeah, I'm just saying-- a big desalination plant is a solved problem. Grid scale energy storage has been ten years off for almost as long as nuclear fusion. The original author just hand waves their way through what would be the biggest energy breakthrough in a hundred years to save a couple bucks running a desalination plant.