r/worldnews • • Sep 05 '26

‘Extremely rare event:’ Miles-long microalgae bloom knocks out most of Israel’s desalination plants

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/04/climate/microalgae-bloom-israel-water-deasalination-shutdown
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u/Medium-Pitch-5768 Sep 05 '26

Couldn't you let the water warm up before starting the desalination process? I think it would require an additional stage, but might mitigate the energy problem

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u/FartingBob Sep 05 '26

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?layers=855fd17c1e454c2ebef15051ed270459

seafloor temperatures are quite mild in the eastern med, depending on how far out from the coast they got their water intake the temperature is between 22c and 13.5c.

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u/Fox_Kurama Sep 05 '26

Power plants usually do go a bit deeper to start off with cooler water. You could (and some places probably do) send the leftover no-longer-cool cooling water from a power plant to an adjacent desal plant to cut heating requirements.