By Dr. Haytham Mouzahem

Saudi Arabia will adopt a new solar technology to desalinate seawater at Neom, a mega-city that it is developing along the country’s northern Red Sea coast.

Last month NEOM announced that it will rely on a pioneering solar technology to produce clean, low-cost, environmentally friendly fresh water. To be seen as a step to enhance NEOM's position as a new global destination, and a promising future center for innovation.

NEOM said in a statement it will have the world’s first ‘solar dome’ desalination plants, which it will produce no carbon emissions. It will also create less brine than facilities using conventional reverse osmosis technology. The solar dome plants will also process drinking water at lower cost than conventional plants.

NEOM, a planned 16-borough city on the Red Sea coast in the northwestern Saudi province of Tabuk, is the vision of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. It is also the centerpiece of the kingdom’s 2030 Vision plan to grow and diversify the Saudi econom
y.

NEOM has signed an agreement with the UK-based Solar Water Limited to build the first desalination plant with "Solar Dome" technology in NEOM, northwest of the Kingdom.

The company confirmed that work on the solar dome project will start next February and it is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.

The project is the first of its kind, totally sustainable, and 100% carbon neutral, designed to shape the future of desalination not only in NEOM, but in the entire world, providing access to fresh water, one of the world's most pressing issues.

The cost will be 0.34 USD / cubic meter, equivalent to 1.275 SAR / cubic meter, significantly lower than the cost associated with desalination plants using reverse osmosis methods currently in place. The project would significantly reduce the environmental impact of the desalination process by producing less quantities of saline solution, which is a by-product of water abstraction that can harm neighboring natural ecosystems.

NEOM said in a statement, that the approach of the pioneering and innovative Solar Water Company Limited was developed at Cranfield University in the United Kingdom. It is the first widespread use of the concentrated solar power (CSP) technology in seawater desalination, as seawater is pumped to the "solar dome".

Unlike reverse osmosis, in which seawater passes through plastic membranes that remove the salt, Neom will pump ocean water into a dome-like structure of glass and steel. There it will be heated until it evaporates and precipitates as fresh water, Neom said.

This technique can also work at night due to the stored solar energy generated throughout the day.

Saudi Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture, Abdul Rahman Al-Fadhli said that the adoption of NEOM of this program supports the sustainability goals set by its ministry, as shown in the National Water Strategy 2030, and it is fully in line with the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations .

CEO of NEOM company, Nadhmi Al-Nasr, explained that NEOM is characterized by easy access to abundant sea water and completely renewable energy resources, which means that NEOM is in an ideal position to produce low-cost and sustainable fresh water through solar water desalination.

For his part, the CEO of Solar Water Ltd David Ripley said, thousands of desalination plants around the world rely heavily on burning fossil fuels for water extraction, and we have the technology to desalinate the water in a totally sustainable and 100% carbon neutral fashion.