This is just one post in the Poseidon's Carlsbad Plant Category

Desalting water and breaking new ground

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 26, 2008 at 12:10 pm

From the San Diego Union Tribune, this commentary by Robert Gilleskie, director of Engineering at the California Center for Sustainable Energy, which is an independent, nonprofit in San Diego that facilitates the adoption of energy-efficient technologies and practices:

Recently, Poseidon Resources Inc., the developer of the Carlsbad desalination plant, asked the California Center for Sustainable Energy to review its voluntary Climate Action Plan, which describes its strategy to render the plant carbon-neutral. After thorough, independent review by our energy and climate-change experts, we have concluded that Poseidon’s strategy to render the plant carbon-neutral is sound.

In fact, Poseidon has broken new ground in its proposal; to the best of our knowledge, the plant will be the first major infrastructure project in the state to voluntarily eliminate its net carbon footprint. CCSE believes this project will advance the state’s goals as embodied in AB32, California’s ground-breaking Global Warming Solutions Act.

The overwhelming majority of the emissions associated with the desalination plant are “indirect” emissions; they result from the generation of electricity provided by the local utility. Implementation of Poseidon’s plan will effectively cancel these emissions by incorporating energy-efficient equipment into the plant’s design, installing a solar-power system at the site, revegetating lands in coastal North County, planting trees, and purchasing renewable energy credits.

In addition, the plant will make over 50 million gallons of drinking water a day here in San Diego. It will no longer be necessary to import this amount from Northern California, thus avoiding the energy use and carbon dioxide emissions attendant to pumping this water from distant sources.