Smart specialisation in the context of blue economy : analysis of desalination sector.
Date: 2021-08-16
Institutions: Joint Research Centre
Subjects: EU regional policy, EU research policy, European Regional Development Fund, adaptation to climate change, agri-foodstuffs, agricultural production, biodiversity, community resilience, food security, innovation, maritime economy, new technology, public-private partnership, regional cooperation, report, sustainable development, value chain, water supply, water treatment

Smart Specialisation in the 
Context of Blue Economy – 
Analysis of Desalination Sector 

Jan Post, Pieter de Jong (Wetsus), 
Matt Mallory (BlueTech Research), 
Mathieu Doussineau, Ales Gnamus 

 2021 

EUR 30768 EN  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This publication is a Science for Policy report by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s 
science and knowledge service. It aims to provide evidence-based scientific support to the European policymaking 
process. The scientific output expressed does not imply a policy position of the European Commission. Neither 
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country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. 

Contacts: 
Name: Ales Gnamus 
Email: ales.gnamus@ec.europa.eu 

EU Science Hub 
https://ec.europa.eu/jrc 

JRC125905 

EUR 30768 EN 

PDF 

ISBN 978-92-76-40319-7 

ISSN 1831-9424 

doi:10.2760/058360 

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2021 

© European Union, 2021 

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How to cite this report: Post J., de Jong P., Mallory M., Doussineau M., Gnamus A.(2021), Smart Specialisation 
in the Context of Blue Economy – Analysis of Desalination Sector, EUR 30768 EN, Publications Office of the 
European Union, Luxembourg, 2021, ISBN 978-92-76-40319-7, doi:10.2760/058360, JRC125905. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Table of Contents 

Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..2 

Executive summary……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4 

1 

Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 5 

2  Desalination from the Innovation Perspective .......................................................................... 6 
2.1  EU Desalination Market ..............................................................................................................6 
2.2  Technology & Industrial comparisons ........................................................................................8 
2.2.1  Technology vendors landscape ........................................................................................8 
2.2.2  Emerging technologies .................................................................................................. 12 

3  Desalination from the EU Policy perspective ........................................................................... 14 
3.1  Desalination in the EU policy agendas .................................................................................... 14 
3.2  Desalination in Horizon EU innovation missions ..................................................................... 16 
3.3  The EU support to Research & Innovation .............................................................................. 17 
3.3.1  R&I Projects funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) ................ 17 
3.3.2  Projects funded by the Horizon 2020 Programme ........................................................ 19 
3.4  Desalination innovation drivers for the EU ............................................................................. 21 
3.4.1  Challenge 1: Make desalination more energy-efficient and cost-effective .................. 21 
3.4.2  Challenge 2: Turn brine treatment and disposal from a problem into an opportunity 22 
3.4.3  Challenge 3: Enable second use of desalted water in agriculture ................................ 23 
3.4.4  Challenge 4: Take the holistic approach and look for systemic innovation .................. 23 
3.4.5  Other challenges ........................................................................................................... 24 

4  Desalination from a regional perspective ............................................................................... 25 
4.1  Desalination in the EU Water Scarce regions .......................................................................... 25 
Integrating water sources: desalination in Murcia ....................................................... 25 
4.1.1 
4.1.2  Desalination issues ........................................................................................................ 27 
4.1.3  Regional smart specialisation strategy .......................................................................... 28 
4.2  Desalination in the EU Western and Northern regions ........................................................... 29 
4.2.1  Adapting to Change: Desalination in Sussex and Hampshire ........................................ 29 
4.2.2  Desalination issues ........................................................................................................ 30 
4.2.3  Regional smart specialisation strategy .......................................................................... 30 
4.3  Desalination in the EU Island regions ...................................................................................... 31 
4.3.1 
Solution for scarce water islands: desalination in Gotland ........................................... 31 
4.3.2  Desalination issues ........................................................................................................ 32 
4.3.3  Regional smart specialisation strategy .......................................................................... 33 
4.4  Opportunities for the next generation of Smart Specialisation Strategies ............................. 33 

5  Conclusion and Policy Recommendations ............................................................................... 35 
5.1  Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 35 
5.2  Recommendations ................................................................................................................... 35 

Table of Figures .................................................................................................................................... 37 
Table of Tables…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………37 
References ............................................................................................................................................ 38 

1 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Abstract 

The smart Specialisation strategy design and implementation offer European territories a solid paradigm 
for developing effective innovation governance, improving innovation policy capacities, enhancing public-
private partnerships, offering common platform for inter-regional cooperation activities, and an operative 
engagement  of  stakeholders  in  the  international  value  chains.  The  sustainable  Smart  Specialisation 
strategies framework can play a key role as  an enabler of a sustainable transformation of  the European 
economy towards the Green Deal by streamlining innovation activities around the value chains to reach the 
competitiveness edge of Europe vis-à-vis the rest of the world. The Blue Economic activities represent an 
essential  component  of  the  European  Green  Deal  activities  in  the  regions  and  Member  States  by 
safeguarding  healthy  oceans,  seas,  and  waters.  One  of  the  emerging  blue  economy  sectors  with 
considerable “greening” potential for a stable water supply in the ever-growing areas with increasing water 
imbalances is the desalination sector. Besides its essential role in providing water in the areas suffering 
water shortages, the sector has the potential for creating prosperity and employment in some territories 
of Europe through a combination of innovation-based sustainable water, energy and chemical technologies, 
coupled  with  environmental  and  societal  challenges.  This  report  aims  at  analysing  the  sector  from  the 
innovation,  the  EU  policy  and  regional  perspectives  -  in  the  latter  with  examples  of  implementation  of 
desalination  technologies  in  the  three  types  of  regions  with  specific  water  supply  issues  across  Europe. 
Examples  are  provided  in  the  water-scarce  regions  of  the  Southern  Europe,  in  European  Western  and 
Northern  regions,  and  in  the  particular  case  of  island  regions,  where  a  stable  water  supply  through 
desalination improves the living conditions and local economy substantially. Overall, the desalination sector 
provides a sustainable solution for agro-food systems and integrated water provision and management in 
the  water-scarce  areas,  makes  those  often  vulnerable  territories  more  climate-resilient,  efficient,  cost-
effective, and environmentally and socially sustainable, and contributes to climate adaptation by solving 
the water scarcity, food security, soil health by enhancing rainwater infiltration and water reuse, nutrition, 
health and well-being of the population in these areas. Given the increasing climate change pressures, a 
holistic approach to addressing global freshwater scarcity through sustainable and innovative solutions is 
needed. The sector of desalination will be granted increasing protagonism in the endeavours to enhance 
territorial  resilience,  improve  ecosystem  services,  biodiversity  and  a  more  sustainable  agricultural 
production in Europe and beyond.  

2 

 
 
 
Acknowledgements 

The authors of this report would like to thank Alberto Pistochi and Dimitrios Kyriakou for their valuable 
comments and suggestions.  

Authors 

Jan Post*,  

Pieter de Jong*,  

Matthew Mallory** 

Mathieu Doussineau*** 

Ales Gnamus***  

*Wetsus, European centre of excellence for sustainable water technology, Oostergoweg 9, Leeuwarden, 
The Netherlands  

** BlueTech Research, Ocean Lodge, Coast Road, Fountainstown, Cork, P43X624, Ireland 

*** European Commission, Joint Research Center, Seville, Spain  

3 

 
 
 
Executive Summary 

The emerging desalination sector is linked to several EU policies and strategies. In the new EU Regulation 
on minimum requirements for water reuse, the area of desalination has both quantitative and qualitative 
effects.  Desalination  should  not  only  save  freshwater  from  the  watershed,  but  it  would  even  become 
freshwater positive when combined with water reuse. Wastewater originating from desalted water has a 
lower  than  average  salinity after  its  first  use  than  conventional  wastewater,  and  hence  it will  provide  a 
better  perspective  for  wastewater  reuse.  On  the  other  hand,  desalination  leads  to  discharges  of 
concentrated  brine  streams,  which  may  contradict  the EU’s  Biodiversity  Strategy  for  2030.  The  recently 
adopted  Commission’s  EU  Action  Plan  Towards  a  Zero  Pollution  for  Air,  Water  and  Soil  requires  the 
desalination sector to assess the use of chemicals in their daily operation.  

There is also a link between desalination and three of the five Horizon EU innovation missions. It can play 
an essential role in the mission of Adaptation to Climate Change by increasing water availability for many 
EU  regions  and  be  also  a  part  of  the  solution  to  mitigate  the  risks  of  water  scarcity.  Another  use  of 
desalinated water is the provision of suitable water and mineral composition for water reuse in agriculture 
to achieve the mission's goals on Soil Health and Food. 

As co-funded by the EU over the past period, the main driver for research and development and resulting 
innovations  is  lower  desalination  energy  consumption.  A  second  driver  may  be  to  reduce  the  costs  for 
desalination.  It  is  a  challenge  indeed  and  worth  the  efforts.  However,  there  seems  very  little  room  for 
further energy use and cost reductions. A challenge with more impact would be to turn brine treatment 
and disposal in the desalination process from a problem into an opportunity.  

A relatively modest share characterizes the EU contribution to finance desalination as an emerging blue 
economy  sector  over  2014-2019.  An  EU  contribution  of  €58.2  million  from  the  European  Regional 
Development Fund (ERDF) is dedicated mainly to infrastructural investments. €23.3 million are coming from 
the  EU  Research  and  Innovation  programme  Horizon  2020  (H2020)  to  support  research  and  innovation 
activities. 

In the Multi-annual Financial Framework 2021-2027, many programmes can target innovation needs in the 
desalination sector. PRIMA initiative1 can take a more holistic approach to address water scarcity by adding 
fresh water to the cycle using water reuse and desalination. The European partnership Water4All  is already 
addressing sustainable management of residues from desalination plants. Still, it can increase granularity 
by taking the specific challenges of too much boron and too little magnesium into account. Mission Climate 
Adaptation  could  also  address  the  holistic  approach  of  global  freshwater  scarcity  and  form  the  bridge 
between European RDI efforts and global challenges and regional needs. Mission Healthy Soil and Food 
could consider the health aspects of desalinated water, boron and magnesium. Mission Starfish2030 could 
take the challenge to reduce the ecological impact of desalination. 

Around 20 European regions are members of the thematic smart specialisation partnership Water Smart 
Territories, one of the Smart Specialisation Platform for Industrial Modernisation partnerships. There are 
clear  opportunities  to  engage  in  strategic  interregional  cooperation  and  shared  RIS3  priorities  to 
complement each other’s competencies, share infrastructure, and develop joint investment projects. Smart 
specialisation strategies will allow place-based innovation ecosystems to optimize the use of local, regional, 
national  and  European  funding  opportunities  and  facilitating  funding  synergies.  It  would  maximise  the 
impact  of  these  various  programmes  and  boost  the  effectiveness  of research,  innovation, start-ups  and 
scale-ups in desalination. It can form a foundation for new economic growth, including in Blue Growth in 
general and desalination in particular.  

1 Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA) 

4 

 
 
                                           
1 

Introduction 

The desalination capacity of Europe has been recently estimated at 8.7 million m3/day, which is around 9% 
of the global installed capacity. With an installed capacity of over 4.2 million m3/day, Spain currently has 
the largest share of the European Union desalination capacity (over 60% of the EU and an estimated 5.7% 
of  the  global  desalination  capacity).  Still,  remarkably,  in  the  last  decade  (2010-2019),  the  newly 
commissioned  capacity  was  only  0.84  million  m3/day  with  an  investment  of  €630  million,  and  such 
moderate  growth  appears  to  be  sustained  during  the  coming  five  years.  This  trend  deviates  from  the 
sector's global growth in the same period, almost doubling its capacity. Given the age of the reverse osmosis 
assets, it can be expected that the reinvestment market in the coming five years will be about twice the 
market  for  newly  developed  desalination  plants.  As  a  result,  the  membrane  market  has  become  a  very 
competitive replacement market, with low margins and little room for innovation. 

The study analyses the primary market for innovative and emerging desalination technologies through a 
survey showing differences between the emerging technologies and the broader traditional technologies. 
The survey identified 75 global vendors, of which 25 are based in Europe (share of 33%), which shows that 
Europe  is  a  central  hub  for  innovation  in  desalination.  However,  Europe  seems  to  lag  regarding  patent 
activity  and  licensing  opportunities  with  a  share  of  only  17%.  The  analysis  identified  two  families  of 
technologies revealed by high patent activity in 2020 compared to the others. The first is electro-chemical 
processes, which are typically more resistant to fouling than reverse osmosis and can be more selective. 
The other is membrane distillation processes, which can allow treating water too saline for reverse osmosis. 
This latter technology can operate at lower temperatures than many other distillation technologies. 

Desalination is still considered an emerging sector within the Blue Economy. The EU Blue Economic Report 
2020 (European Commission, 2020) states that desalination continues to be a key sector for those regions 
that are more likely to suffer water shortages, not least due to climate change. According to the report, the 
EU territory accounts for more than 1,500 desalination plants, mainly spread around the Mediterranean 
Sea basin, with a production capacity of almost 7 million m3/day and an estimated annual turnover of €2 to 
2.3 billion/year2. In terms of employment, it was reported that for the operation and maintenance of the 
desalination plants,  the  sector  represents  nearly  4,000  jobs.  These  numbers  show  that  the  desalination 
sector  is  still  a  relatively  small  economic  sector  in  the  Blue  Economy  in  Europe.  However,  despite  the 
relatively  small  size  of  the  sector,  it  significantly  impacts  associated  societal  and  economic  sectors  and 
related jobs (e.g. agriculture, tourism). Climate change leads to dryer summers, not only in the Southern 
European countries but also across Europe. Summer water deficits are no longer fully replenished in wet 
winters, and hence all over Europe, water supply companies are looking for water-saving measures and 
alternative sources. Until recently, desalination of the sea or brackish water was not considered the best 
water  reuse  option  for  the  provision  of  water,  mainly  due  to  its  energy  consumption  and  particular 
environmental impact (brine discharges). However, with the rise of integrated renewable energy solutions 
and  emerging  environmental  remediation  solutions,  desalination  technologies  appear  increasingly 
relevant.  

This report provides an overview from the technological and policy perspectives. It first describes the EU 
innovation  market,  the  EU  industrial  leadership  and  R&D  position,  and  the  associated  challenges  and 
opportunities (Chapter 2). It explores how desalination fits in many of the agendas of the European Union 
(Chapter 3) and how existing financial instruments can support it. The desalination panorama in Europe is 
complemented  by  three  desalination  cases  representing  a  variety  of  geographical  locations  (three  sea 
basins), applications (municipal, agricultural, energy sector), and scales (small, medium, large).  Chapter 4 
provides  some  insights  into  the  investigation  in  the  opportunities  to  specialise  in  innovation-related 
desalination techniques through smart specialisation strategies related to the three presented cases. The 
report concludes with a set of policy recommendations (Chapter 5). 

2 Calculation based on desalination costs for RO, ranging € 0.56-1.43/m3, depending on source water and scale 
of the plant. Provided that 72.6% is supplied from plants with large capacities (>10,000 m3/day), and the 
remaining 27.4 % from plants with small capacity, weighed average price of € 0.80-0.90/m3 can be assumed. 

5 

 
                                           
2  Desalination from the Innovation Perspective  

2.1  EU Desalination Market 

The historical and projected investments in desalination and the installed capacity follow an erratic trend 
since the introduction before 2000 (Figure 1). In 2019, a total of 1 573 operational desalination plants were 
located in the Eu Member States, offshore or in coastal areas, producing 6.9 million m3/day (2020 EU Blue 
Economic Report).  For the whole European area, the capacity was recently estimated to be 8.7 million m3 
water/day (Jones, Qadir, Van Vliet, Smakhtin, & Kang, 2019), which is around 9% of the global installed 
capacity. For the period 2019-2024, new desalination projects for a total capacity of 0.5 million m3/day are 
announced. It will bring the estimated total installed desalination capacity in the EU to around 7.5 million 
m3 water/day in 2025. 

Figure 1: Investments in new desalination capacity and cumulative installed capacity.  

Source: EU Blue Economy Report 2020, open bars are own estimates. 

The desalination capacity in the EU has grown significantly over the first decade of this century, with 4.58 
million m3/day of new capacity between 2000 and 2009 for a total investment in Engineering, Procurement 
and  Construction  (EPC),  of  €4  billion.  Many  of  the  Large  (10,000-50,000  m3/day)  and  Extra  Large  (over 
50,000 m3/day) facilities were commissioned to serve big coastal cities such as Barcelona and Alicante in 
Spain. Spain currently has the largest share in desalination capacity (over 60% of the European Union) with 
an installed capacity of over 4.2 million m3/day. It represents approximately 5.7% of the global desalination 
capacity (Jones, Qadir, Van Vliet, Smakhtin, & Kang, 2019)). 

However, the last decade (between 2010 and 2019) has seen a newly commissioned capacity of only 0.84 
million m3/day with an investment of €630 million with most of the new capacity installed in the form of 
Small and Medium size plants (under 10,000 m3/day). This trend deviates from the global growth with a 
doubling of the desalination capacity over the same period (Jones, Qadir, Van Vliet, Smakhtin, & Kang, 2019) 
(Figure 2). Moreover, the moderate annual growth of the Desalination capacity in the EU appears to be 
sustained over the coming five years. 

6 

 
 
Figure 2 Desalination capacity indexed to reference year 2010  

Source: Jones et al., 2019 

With desalination plants’ lifetimes of 20 to 25 years, it can be expected that in the coming years, increasing 
investments  will  be  necessary  to  modernize  or  replace  outdated  facilities.  Just  based  on  the  historical 
figures,  about  €1  billion  may  need  to  be  invested  in  the  period  of  2020-2025  for  the  replacement  of 
outdated plants built before 2000. This reinvestment market is estimated at twice the market for newly 
developed desalination plants in that same period. 

Reverse osmosis (RO) is currently the most widely used desalination technology in Europe, with 85.5 % of 
total capacity (The EU Blue Economy Report 2020, EC, 2020). Membranes have an estimated lifetime of 5-
7  years,  meaning  that  membranes  have  to  be  replaced  4  to  5  times  in  the  operational  lifetime  of  a 
desalination  plant  when  other  mechanical  components  like  high-pressure  pumps  and  energy  recovery 
devices typically need to be replaced only once or twice. As a result, the desalination market has turned 
almost entirely into a replacement market3 after 2010 (Figure 3). The membrane market for 2020-2025 is 
equivalent  to  the  contracted  construction  of  new  desalination  plants  in  the  same  period.  Hence,  the 
membrane market is primarily dominated by replacement rather than by investments into new plants. 
As a result, this has turned a market into a very competitive commodity, with low margins and little room 
for innovation.  

Figure 3: Membrane market estimates for new desalination capacity and 5-yearly replacement 

Source: Own elaboration based on calculation mentioned in the footnote (data for calculation taken from the EU Blue 
Economy Report 2020) 

3 By dividing the hourly capacity with an average membrane flux of 20 L/m2.h the installed m2 of membrane can 

be estimated. Market is estimated with a membrane prize of 25 €/m2 and 5 years lifetime.  

7 

 
 
 
 
                                           
2.2  Technology & Industrial comparisons  

Understanding the landscape of emerging desalination technologies helps provide insights into trends in 
applying and guidance concerning possible regulatory actions. The identification of emerging desalination 
technologies  currently  in  the  market,  patent  activity,  and  licensing  opportunities  coming  out  of  top 
research universities was performed by an Innovation tracker review designed by Blue tech research based 
in the US.  

2.2.1  Technology vendors landscape 

Emerging  desalination  technologies  must  not  only  be  new  but  also  provide  some  differentiation  from 
traditional technologies. The emerging technologies are measured by improving efficiency, contaminant 
concentration achievable, or some innovative business model that the technology may offer. It indicates 
whether a particular technology will be disruptive enough to find a place in the market to compete with 
more traditional options. It is important to note that the emerging technology landscape will likely differ 
from the conventional technology landscape. Fourteen technology classes have been identified to provide 
an analytical framework, ranging from the most mature to the emerging ones (Table 1). Those technologies 
are not self-standing and do not cover the whole value chain; moreover, they can complement each other. 
Table 1 also shows that European vendors represent a significant share of the total number of vendors with 
specific disparities among the technology classes.  

Table 1: Desalination Technology Classifications 

Technology Class 

Reverse Osmosis Based Technologies 
Reverse Osmosis 
Nanofiltration 
Energy Recovery Device 
Desal operationa  
Membranes 
Thermal Technologies 
Thermal desalination 
Thermal evaporation vapor recompression 
Multi-effect 
Emerging Technologies 
Forward Osmosis 
Electro-chemical (ED, EDR, EDI) 
Membrane distillation 
Other Technologies 
Solar distillation 
Wave powered desalination 
Other desalination 
Grand Total 

A scaling control, fouling control, pre-treatment, monitoring, etc. 

Source: BlueTech Research, Innovation Tracker, 2020. 

Vendor Count 
(Global) 

Vendor Count 
(Europe) 

2 
1 
3 
7 
7 

10 
2 
4 

6 
8 
13 

3 
2 
7 
75 

0 
0 
1 
2 
1 

5 
1 
1 

1 
2 
8 

0 
0 
3 
25 

When focusing on technology being developed within Europe specifically, the landscape, or distribution of 
different  technology  classes,  appears  similar  to  that  of  the  broader  global  landscape.  The  technology 
classifications of membrane distillation, thermal desalination, electro-chemical, and operational efficiency 
offerings  being  most  prominent.  The  “other”  category  does  make  a  sizable  contribution  to  the  overall 
landscape,  although  technologies  within  this  class  are  primarily  early-stage  (lab  to  pilot  scale),  one-off 
technologies. Certain technology classes were not observed among European vendors in other regions and 
included solar distillation, wave-powered desalination, and reverse osmosis. A side-by-side comparison of 
the technology landscape can be seen in Figure 4. 

8 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 4: Comparison of Global vs European Desalination Technology Landscape 

Source: Own elaboration based on the BlueTech Research, Innovation Tracker, 2020 

When evaluating the geographic distribution of companies offering these technologies, North America and 
Europe are the major hubs of innovation, with a smaller number located in The Middle East and Asian 
Pacific regions.  Figure 5 shows the locations of technology vendors.  

Figure 5: Location of technology vendors at the major hubs in Europe, North America, and Asian Pacific 

Source: Own elaboration  

European Emerging Technology Companies 

The  identification  of  European  desalination  technology  companies  is  performed  through  an  analytical 
framework rating a technology offering based on several criteria to give scores between 0 and 5. These 

9 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
scores are based on the size of the addressable market, strength of the management team, IP protection, 
differentiated technology/business model, and an overall opinion. Other considerations given to an offering 
include the growth velocity of a company, the disruption of specific desalination technology in the market 
(based on efficiency gains over traditional technologies), and the development stage of  such technology 
itself.  In  Figure  6,  the  identified  innovative  companies  in  Europe  are  listed  with  their  scores  and  other 
variables represented as colours, shapes, and sizes to provide a “desalination technology radar” and help 
provide a quick view of profiles of these companies. It is important to note that not all companies have 
received rating up to the date of this publication and are hence shown here as blank.  

10 

 
 
Table 2: European Emerging Technology Company Profiles 

Source: Own elaboration (BlueTech Research, 2021) 

11 

 
 
 
2.2.2  Emerging technologies 

A global patent and licensing review were completed to evaluate if any class of desalination technology can 
be expected more prominent. Two classes of technology did show high patent activity in 2020 compared 
to  the  others.  The  first  is  Electro-chemical  processes  with  ten  patents  filed  and  operational  efficiency 
offerings with nine patents filed. These two areas displayed more than twice as many patents as the next 
most active technology class (BlueTech Research, Patent Watch, 2020). A full breakdown of patents filled 
for each technology class can be seen in Figure 7. 

Figure 6: Desalination Technology Patent Activity in 2020 

Source: Own elaboration - BlueTech Research, Patent Watch, 2020 

Only  one  technology  class  stands  out  when  evaluating  the  technology  available  for  license  out  of  the 
research  assessed  institutes.  Membrane  materials,  manufacturing,  and  coatings  made  up  to 33%  of  the 
licensing opportunities, while no other technology class considered broke above 11% of the total. Much of 
the  desalination  research  taking  place  appears  to  be  focusing  on  material  science  and  manufacturing 
practices (BlueTech Research, Licensing Tracker, 2020).  

Key findings were as follows: 

- 

Limited patent activity is taking place in Europe compared to the rest of the world 

When  comparing  patent  and  licensing  activity  within  Europe  to  the  rest  of  global  patent  activity,  it  is 
observed that limited patent activity is taking place in Europe compared to the rest of the world. European 
patents made up only 7 of the 42 total patents uncovered, which account for only about 17% of the total 
patent activity. European licensing opportunities made up only 3 of the 18 uncovered, also about 17% of 
the total. 

- 

The largest share of commercialized emerging technology belongs to membrane distillation, 
thermal desalination  

Reviewing  the  technology  landscape,  patent  activity,  and  licensing  opportunities  among  emerging 
desalination  technology  trends  present  themselves.  The  review  showed  that  the  largest  share  of 
commercialized  emerging  technology  belongs  to  membrane  distillation,  thermal  desalination,  electro-
chemical, and operational efficiency offerings making up 51% of global and 68% of the European region’s 
innovation  landscape.  Even  though  membrane  distillation  can  be  considered  a  thermal  desalination 

12 

 
 
process, it is singled out in this review due to many offerings compared to other thermal processes. While 
membrane distillation and thermal desalination made up the majority within this sub-group, it is essential 
to note the patent activity occurring within electrochemical processes and operational efficiency offerings, 
indicating  potential  advancement  in  those  technologies.  When  reviewing  the  licensing  opportunities, 
research  is  highly  focused  on  materials  development  and  membrane  manufacturing  improvements  to 
create more robust membranes that are less prone to fouling.  

- 

Towards zero liquid discharge and improved efficiency 

These technologies connect in a high-level view of a particular application or goal. Further analysis would 
need  to  be  performed,  but  based  on  this  review,  higher  recovery  rates,  possibly  including  zero  liquid 
discharge, and improved efficiency appear to be an essential focus of emerging desalination technology. 
Membrane distillation promises to treat water that is too saline for reverse osmosis (RO) and can operate 
at lower temperatures than many distillation technologies (between 30°C and 90°C), utilizing low-grade 
heat  from  sources  such  as  solar,  district  heating  or  waste  heat.  Membrane  distillation  has  struggled  to 
overcome technical limitations that have slowed its commercialization while also occupying a niche with 
significant and mature competitive technologies such as evaporators. The process could also be used to 
concentrate  water  before  evaporators  further.  While  missing  from  the  European  landscape,  those 
technologies  included  in  the  reverse  osmosis  class  consisted  of  high-recovery  reverse  osmosis,  which 
attempts  to  recover  more water  or  act  as  a  concentration step  before evaporation.  With  such  a  strong 
performance by membrane distillation and thermal desalination, high water recovery rates, or even zero 
liquid discharge appear to be the target application.  

While  recovering  more  water  is  expected,  the  consequences  of  higher  water  recovery  rates  are  harsh 
operating conditions for equipment and management of the resulting concentrated brine produced as a 
waste  product.  Installation of  a zero  liquid  discharge  treatment  train  can solve  the  brine  disposal  issue, 
however as salinity concentration increases with recovery rates, conditions would become difficult for any 
traditional treatment technology to operate. Electrochemical processes and operating efficiency solutions 
appear increasingly available in the market and improve the problematic operational conditions and brine 
management.  

- 

Electro-chemical processes as a promising technology 

Electrochemical processes such as electrodialysis reversal offer several operational benefits. The method 
uses membranes within an electrolytic cell that, when applied, moves dissolved ions across the membrane 
producing clean water. While these usually imply a more significant capital investment, their operating cost 
is  expected  to  be  lower  than  those  of  reverse  osmosis.  The  membranes  are  typically  more  resistant  to 
fouling than reverse osmosis, and the process can be more selective based on the membranes used within 
the  cell.  It  gives  the  ability  to  control  the  separation  and  removal  of  specific  dissolved  ions  instead  of 
removing all contaminants. It is helpful for resource recovery or altering the chemistry of water to reduce 
scaling.  Operational  efficiency  solutions  attempt  to  minimise  energy  input,  chemical  requirement  and 
monitor water quality to prescribe action to prevent fouling.  These are all increasingly important when 
aiming at achieving higher water recovery rates due to operating conditions present when treating higher 
salinity waters.  

High recovery rates will be desired from water risk regions both from the industrial and municipal sectors. 
However, the industrial sector will be the one to most likely implement zero liquid discharge. Industries 
looking to reuse their water will also seek high recovery rate solutions to limit water use and show corporate 
sustainability  goals  are  being  met.  With  electro-chemical  processes’  ability  to  selectively  remove  ions, 
routes to market for recovered resources should be considered as these technologies improve the chance 
of successful circular economy applications. With such high interest to control high concentration brines, 
consideration for brine management would help assist those looking to recover more water or resources 
from their water without causing a back-end problem of brine disposal.  

13 

 
3  Desalination from the EU Policy perspective 

3.1  Desalination in the EU policy agendas 

The ever increasing demand for water entails the need for alternative water sources for balancing the water 
supply and demand. Desalination has become a significant alternative water source due to the growing 
water demand and inadequate conventional water sources in many countries. Desalination removes excess 
salts and other dissolved solids from water to get clean water for human usage. In many ways, desalination 
is  intrinsically,  but  often  implicitly,  part  of  many  of  the  strategic  agendas  of  the  European  Union.  For 
illustration,  without  being  exhaustive,  the  following  EU  plans,  strategies  and  policies  are  related  to  the 
opportunities  and  effects  resulting  from  the  desalination  sector:  the  EU  Regulation  on  minimum 
requirements for Water Reuse, the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the EU Action Plan Towards a Zero 
Pollution for Air, Water and Soil, The European Green Deal, The UN Sustainable Development Goals, and 
also in the Horizon Europe Innovation Missions: Climate Adaptation, StarFish2030, Healthy Soil (see 3.2.). 

-  Desalination and Water Reuse Regulation 

The new Regulation on minimum requirements for water reuse for agricultural irrigation has been adopted 
in 2021. The new rules will apply from 26 June 2023 and are expected to stimulate and facilitate water reuse 
in  the  EU.  In  the  EU,  one-third  of  the  territories  have  year-round  water  stress  effects.  Climate  change 
increases the frequency and intensity of droughts, and the cost of water shortages in the period 1976-2006 
accounted for €100 billion. Figure 8 shows how water reuse and desalination can contribute to freshwater 
availability. 

Figure 7: How can water reuse and desalination contribute to freshwater availability  

Water reuse in the EU has largely untapped potential. In 2006, the total amount of reused wastewater in 
Europe was 1 billion m³/year, mainly in Spain and Italy. Water reuse is a strategic option, beneficial to both 

Source: Own elaboration 

14 

 
 
 
 
the environment and the economy since it keeps fresh water in the water cycle (see Figure 8, top right). 
The  introduction  of  desalination  in  the  overall  water  supply  schemes  will  save  freshwater  from  the 
watershed (Figure 8, bottom left) in the first place. Still, it would become even freshwater positive when 
combined with  water reuse  (Figure 8,  bottom right).  Wastewater  originating  from desalted  water  has a 
lower  average  salinity  after  its  first  use  than  conventional  wastewater  and  hence  will  provide  a  better 
perspective for wastewater reuse.  

Figure 9 places the current European Water Reuse and Desalination capacity in perspective vis-à-vis the 
envisaged situation for 2025. With 2.6 billion m3 water/year, desalination currently saves more freshwater 
than water reuse keeps fresh water in the cycle. By 2025, it can be expected that the desalination capacity 
has grown by a moderate 10-20% to around 3 billion m3/year4. The expansion of water reuse may by then 
even be expansively grown to its achievable potential of 6 billion m3/year (Doeser, 2017). It may well be 
that the growth of the desalination sector will be boosted as enabling industry to the water reuse sector, 
as probably also salinity of the wastewater is currently a limiting factor to achieve the more significant reuse 
potential. 

Figure 8: Current capacity of reuse and desalination, and the perspective for 2025 

Source: Own elaboration (source for an estimate from Doeser, 2017)  

-  Desalination and the EU green deal 

The European Green Deal aims to make Europe climate neutral by 2050, boost the economy through green 
technology, create sustainable industry and transport while cutting pollution. The European Green Deal 
provides  an action  plan to  increase  resource-efficient  use  by  moving  to  a  clean,  circular  economy  and 
restoring biodiversity and cutting pollution (see below). As been discussed, without doubt, desalination can 
be regarded as a contributing sector, and in some cases of severe water scarcity even as enabling industry, 
supplying necessary amounts of water needed to achieve these ambitions. 

-  Desalination and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 

Improved climate and biodiversity tracking methodologies will be implemented to make sure that at least 
30% of the total amount of the Union budget and Next Generation EU expenditures will support climate 
objectives and to ensure 7.5% of annual spending dedicated to biodiversity objectives from 2024 and 10% 
from  2026  onwards  (Wisdorff,  2020).  The  EU  Biodiversity  Strategy  for  2030  (European  Commission, 
Biodiversity Strategy, 2020) foresees establishing protected areas for at least 30% of land in Europe and 
30% of the sea in Europe with strict protection for areas of very high biodiversity and climate value. It also 
aims to restore degraded ecosystems at land and sea across Europe by planting 3 billion trees by 2030 and 
restoring at least 25,000 km of EU’s rivers to a free-flowing state. Discharges of concentrated brine streams 
resulting from desalination can have an impact on the surrounding aquatic ecosystems. Studies have been 

4 For estimate of capacity, see chapter 3 

15 

 
 
                                           
performed on the (local) effect on biota changes with particular interest for critical species that are usually 
ecologically  important  bio-constructors,  such  as  seagrasses,  kelp  forests,  and  corals  (Fernández-
Torquemadaa, Carratalá, & Lizaso, 2019). Long-term exposure to elevated salt levels from brines can have 
effects on these critical aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, brine discharge deserves special attention.  

-  Desalination and the Zero Pollution Action Plan 

The  Zero  Pollution  Action  Plan  “Towards  a  Zero  Pollution  Ambition  for  air,  water  and  soil  –  building  a 
Healthier Planet for Healthier People” is aiming to take actions to secure clean air, water and soil, healthy 
ecosystems and a healthy living environment for Europeans. The EU needs to prevent, remedy, monitor 
and  report  on  pollution,  mainstream  the  zero  pollution  ambition  into  all  its  policy  developments  and 
decouple  economic  growth  from  the  increase  of  pollution,  in  line  with  United  Nations'  efforts.  Zero 
pollution will require the desalination sector to assess the use of chemicals (e.g. pH adjusters, coagulants, 
flocculants, biocides, anti-fouling agents, reducing chemicals, chlorine and anti-corrosion adhesives) in their 
daily operation. The EU’s chemicals strategy for sustainability is to move towards a toxic-free environment 
(European  Commission,  Chemicals  Strategy,  2020).  The  Chemicals  Strategy  is  the  first  step  towards 
Europe's  zero  pollution  ambition.  Commissioner  for  the  Environment,  Oceans  and  Fisheries  Virginijus 
Sinkevicius said: “We owe our wellbeing and high living standards to the many useful chemicals that people 
have  invented  over  the  past  100  years.  However,  we  cannot  close  our  eyes  to  the  harm  that  hazardous 
chemicals pose to our environment and health. We have come a long way in regulating chemicals in the EU. 
With this strategy, we want to build on our achievements and go further to prevent the most dangerous 
chemicals from entering into the environment and our bodies, and affecting especially the most fragile and 
vulnerable ones.” (Loonela, 2020) 

-  Desalination and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as set by the United Nations 

The  EU  is  fully  committed  to  being  a  frontrunner  in  implementing  the  2030  Agenda  for  Sustainable 
Development as set by the United Nations. Through the European Consensus on Development, the EU has 
aligned its approach to international cooperation and development policy with the 2030 Agenda, placing 
the SDGs and the Paris Agreement on climate change at the heart of its action, illustrated with previous 
policy  examples.  Desalination can be  directly  linked  as enabling  for  many  of  the  SDGs, here  to  mention 
specifically: Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6), Sustainable economic growth, employment and work (SDG 
8),  Innovation  and  Infrastructure  (SDG  9),  Sustainable  Cities  and  Communities  (SDG  11),  Responsible 
Consumption and Production (SDG 12), Climate Action (SDG 13), and Life Below Water (SDG 14). 

3.2  Desalination in Horizon EU innovation missions 

Partly inspired by the Apollo 11 mission to put a man on the moon, the European research and innovation 
missions aim to deliver solutions to some of the most significant challenges facing our world. They are an 
integral part of the Horizon Europe framework programme beginning in 2021. Each mission is a mandate 
to solve a pressing challenge in society within a specific timeframe and budget. Incorporating Missions in 
Horizon Europe increases the effectiveness of funding by pursuing clearly defined targets. There is a link 
between desalination and three of the five missions: (1) Adaptation to Climate Change, (2) StarFish2030 
and (3) Soil Health.  

Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change 

The mission of Adaptation to Climate Change is that by 2030, 100 pilots of innovative solutions should be 
in place, thereby increasing the climate resilience of regions and communities. “Examples include increasing 
the capacity of our rivers and wetlands that protect us from flooding; more robust buildings, more resilient 
crops and smarter irrigation; restoring fire-resilient forests, local energy systems, or early warning systems 
to safeguard our health and wellbeing.” Availability of sufficient clean water will be a crucial challenge in 
adaptation to climate change. Desalination can play an essential role in many EU regions to increase water 
availability.  

The Mission Board on Healthy Oceans, Seas, Coastal and Inland Waters has proposed a mission entitled 
Starfish 2030: Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030. In the coming decade, a crucial challenge will be 
water security. In addition to global warming, water availability is directly affected by increasing demand 

16 

 
for water from industry, agriculture, urbanization and tourism. It escalates global demand for renewable 
energy,  which  is  strongly  water-dependent,  saline  intrusions,  and  surface-  and  groundwater  pollution. 
There  are  multiple  risks  associated  with  water  scarcity.  To  name  but  a  few:  loss  of  livelihood  due  to 
increasing water variability, modification of river streams and morphology, and pollution transmission to 
the entire water system (including the ocean and seas). Desalination can be a part of the solution to mitigate 
these water scarcity risks and introduce new emissions in coastal areas that have to be managed. 

Mission on Soil Health and Food 

The  mission  on  Soil  Health  and  Food  recognizes  that  land  and  soils  are  essential  for  all  life-sustaining 
processes on our planet. They are the basis for the food we grow and many other products such as feed, 
textiles,  or wood.  Soils  also  provide  a  range  of  essential  ecosystem  services for  clean  water,  supporting 
biodiversity, cycling nutrients, and regulating climate. Soils are highly dynamic and fragile systems  - and 
they are a finite resource. It can take up to 1,000 years to produce 1cm of soil. Soils are facing pressures 
from an increasing population with demands on land for production, settlement and industries. Soils are 
also heavily affected by climate change, erosion and sea level rises. Approximately 33% of our global soils 
are degraded, and in the EU, erosion is affecting 25% of agricultural land. The second use of desalinated 
water can provide the suitable water and mineral composition for water reuse in agriculture.  

3.3  The EU support to Research & Innovation 

The status of desalination as an emerging sector in EU policy can be measured in terms of the modest share 
it took from EU contributions over 2014-2019. A contribution of €58.2 million from the European Regional 
Development Fund (ERDF) was dedicated to mainly infrastructural investments and €23.3 million from the 
EU Research and Innovation programme Horizon 2020 (H2020) innovation activities. In summary (a detailed 
analysis below), the contributions to the desalination sector had the following characteristics:  

-  Beneficiaries. ERDF supported €23.7 million to private enterprises, mainly to SMEs all over 

Europe, to build capacities and equipment for their technology development and production, 
either directly to the SMEs or via knowledge transfer from knowledge institutions. H2020 
supported, with €15.0 million, private enterprises for research and development and with €8.3 
million, research organisations. 
Co-funding purpose. ERDF co-financed with €34.6 million in investments in desalination 
infrastructure by public water utilities or companies, mainly around the Mediterranean basin. 
Besides contributions to existing schemes, at least contributions were made to realize a new 
desalination capacity of 9,000 m3/d. H2020 supported beneficiaries are spread over the whole 
European Union, showing that technology providers and knowledge institutes are not only 
present in the regions with the most severe water stresses. 
Technology. ERDF funding went primarily to projects related to reverse osmosis (RO) technology, 
clearly representing the state-of-the-art of the desalination sector. H2020 funded principally R&D 
projects related to electro-chemical desalination technology, clearly representing emerging 
technologies. 

- 

- 

3.3.1  R&I Projects funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 

An analysis  of  projects  funded  by  ERDF  in  several  areas  is  provided  for  the  period  2014  –  2019  using  a 
dataset  designed  by  the  JRC  (Bachtrögler  et  al.,  2020).    Around  €58.2  million  was  directed  to  the 
desalination  sector.  From  Figure  10A,  it  can  be  seen  that  indeed  SMEs  did  receive  €15.6  million  of  this 
budget mainly for investment in infrastructure, capacities and equipment directly linked to research and 
innovation  activities.  Also,  a  large  portion  was  for  the  support  to  environmentally-friendly  production 
processes and resource efficiency, especially investments in energy recovery of desalination plants. Public 
research  organizations  received  €7.6  million  mainly  for  technology  transfer  and  university-enterprise 
cooperation, primarily benefiting SMEs. 

17 

 
Figure 9: Categorization of ERDF funding for desalination over the period 2014-2019 (in Mln €) 

Source: Own elaboration 

The largest share of €34.6 million was to co-finance investments in desalination infrastructure by public 
water utilities or companies a.o. for a total new installed capacity of at least 9,000 m3/day (listed in Table 
2, with a total ERDF contribution of €5.7 million) and for some urgent plant extensions (capacity increase 
not known) or plant optimizations. The total investments in increasing the desalination capacity in the EU 
is estimated in the order of €200 million for that same period5. 

Table 3: Investments in desalination capacity co-funded by ERDF 

Location 

Capacity (m3/day) 

ERDF intervention  

Hercules (EL) 
Kimo (EL) 
Koufonsia (EL) 
Mykonos (EL) 
Karderadou and Bourbulou (EL) 
Chios (EL) 
Trojonian (EL) 

Source: Own elaboration 

300 
600 
600 
1,000 
2,000 
2,000 
2,300 

(x €1,000) 

277 
172 
275 
650 
1,185 
2,515 
642 

From  Figure  10B,  it  can  be  seen  that  around  €16.0  million  was  directed  to  research  and  development, 
whereas  about  €40.2  million  was  attributed  to  infrastructure  related  to  the  municipal  water  supply. 
Regarding the breakdown in different technologies (Figure 10C), the contributions mainly were related to 
reverse  osmosis  (€40.4  million)  and  (bio)  electrochemical  technologies  (€7.2  million).  Contributions  to 
thermal desalination, globally a relevant class in desalination, were almost absent. The remainder was for 
hybrid schemes or not classified. 

5  Mainly  based  on  figure  6.17  in  The  EU  Blue  Economy  Report  2020  (European  Commission,  2020)  in  which  investment 
estimates  were  based  on  awards  data  and  derived  from  Engineering,  Procurement  and  Construction  data  (Source: 
Desaldata, JRC analysis). 

18 

 
 
                                           
Figure 10 Regions with ERDF intervention related to desalination over the period 2014-2019 

Source: Own elaboration 

Regional distribution can be seen based on the location of the beneficiaries, which is provided in more detail 
per region in Figure 11. The largest share of €35.0 million was for the Mediterranean Sea basin (Spain, Italy, 
Greece). The most significant ERDF intervention was made in 2018 in Sicily on the Aeolian Islands Lipari and 
Vulcano (€21.5 million). For the region of Sicily, the situation of the smaller islands (Levanzo, Favignana, 
Marettimo, Lampedusa, Linosa, Pantelleria, Salina, Lipari, Stromboli, Panarea, Vulcano, Alicudi, Filicudi and 
Ustica) remains at the top of the priorities to be addressed. These remote islands are still almost entirely 
dependent on expensive diesel for the electricity supply, and their water supply is another weak point. The 
region of Sicily has repeatedly submitted a request for recognition of the State of natural disaster to the 
State, the last time during the severe water crisis of the summer of 2017. Often the water need is overcome 
by barges, small ships to transport water. The challenging problem of purification also remains pending, 
which sees the vast majority of small Sicilian islands, with different degrees of non-compliance, outside the 
legal standards. At the same time, in some realities, there is no type of purification (Battioto, 2018). 

3.3.2  Projects funded by the Horizon 2020 Programme 

A closer examination of projects funded by Horizon 2020 is provided here. The programme aims to achieve 
breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market. By coupling 
research and innovation, Horizon 2020 is helping to achieve this with its emphasis on excellent science, 

19 

 
 
industrial leadership and tackling societal challenges. The goal is to ensure Europe produces world-class 
science,  removes  barriers  to  innovation  and  makes  it  easier  for  the  public  and  private  sectors  to  work 
together in delivering innovation. For the period 2014 – 2019, around €23.3 million were directed to the 
desalination sector. 

Figure 11 Categorization of H2020’s €23.3 million funding for desalination over the period 2014-2019 

Source: Own elaboration 

From Figure 12A, it can be seen that about 2/3 of this budget was directed to the private sector to stimulate 
research  and  development  (€15.0  million),  and  most  of  the  other  1/3  to  universities  and  research 
organizations. From Figure 12B, it can be seen that the SME instrument had a considerable share of €5.7 
million  in  desalination  technology-oriented  development  at  SMEs.  In  contrast,  the  instruments  for 
foundational  academic  research  had  only  a  small  contribution  of  only  €1.1  million.  The  latter  can  be 
explained by the fact that desalination can be seen as an application that the fundamental researcher may 
not target. The significant contribution came from a dedicated thematic call on desalination in 2015 from 
the  Nanotechnologies,  Advanced  Materials  and  Advanced  Manufacturing  and  Processing  (NMP),  with  a 
total  budget  of  €14.0  million,  from  which  two  projects  were  granted6.  Regarding  the  division  over  the 
desalination  technologies,  Figure  12C,  the  contributions  were  mainly  related  to  (bio)  electrochemical 
technologies (€14.3 million), mainly from the two granted projects in the NMP call. 

From Figure 13, some regional spreading can be seen based on the location of the beneficiaries. The largest 
share of €11.7 million was for companies and organizations in the North Sea region (mainly The Netherlands 
and Germany). In contrast, parties from the Mediterranean Sea basin got €7.4 million (Mainly Spain and 
Italy). 

6 NMP-24-2015 

20 

 
 
 
                                           
Figure 12: regions with H2020 funding related to desalination innovation over the period 2014-2019 

3.4  Desalination innovation drivers for the EU  

Source: Own elaboration 

The main driver for research and development, and resulting innovations as co-funded by the EU over the 
past period, seems to lower the energy consumption of desalination. A second driver may be to reduce the 
costs for desalination. In this section, innovation drivers are revisited, and it is found that there is not much 
room  for  improvements  in  both  aspects.  Essential  drivers  are  decreasing  the  impact  of  desalination  by 
reducing brine discharge or increasing the added value of desalination for the second use. A more holistic 
approach can also be proposed, which prevents the need for desalination or eventually entails desalination 
being a temporary addition to the natural water cycle in a watershed. 

3.4.1  Challenge 1: Make desalination more energy-efficient and cost-effective 

Although  it  has  been  proven  that  reverse  osmosis  for  seawater  and brackish water  desalination can be 
regarded as a mature technology, the perception is that it is expensive and energy-intensive.  

21 

 
 
Regarding  energy  consumption,  over  the  decades,  reverse  osmosis  technology  has  become  highly 
optimized in terms of specific energy consumption7. State-of-the-art RO systems can operate at a particular 
energy  consumption  of  near  2  kWh/m3,  which  may  be  regarded  as  close  to  the  practical  minimum 
(McCutcheon, 2019). Also, record after a record is broken by implementing highly efficient hydraulic designs 
and including energy recovery devices into the scheme. 

These  reductions  in  energy  consumption  also  enable  the  integration  of  renewable  energy  sources, 
particularly solar PV. The new Dubai Reverse Osmosis plant, for example, will be running on PV, and more 
plants will follow, reducing both environmental impact and costs (Buijs, 2020). As shown in Figure 8, even 
though it is worth the effort, there seems very little room for further energy-use reductions for seawater 
desalination and other waters of lower salinity. The energy efficiency of existing plants is close to the best 
possible. The real point is to make desalination 100% renewables-fed. In this respect, energy storage is the 
main challenge, and where a grid is unavailable or unfit for buffering power demand and supply, solutions 
must entail combined water storage and battery storage (Ganora et al., 2019) (Pistochi et al.,2020) 

With recent large projects in the Middle East region, records are broken for the lowest desalination costs 
(see also Figure 8), claiming to achieve even to go as low as $0.31/m3 (Dubai, Jebel Ali desalination plant, 
182.000  m3/d,  under  construction)  (Buijs,  2020)  (Acciona,  2020).  These  tariffs  may  be  considered  high 
compared  to  water  treatment  schemes  for  conventional  groundwater  and  surface  water.  However, 
especially in coastal areas where advanced treatment is needed to disinfect and remove micro-pollutants, 
these are already competitive. Hence, also for cost reduction seems very little room for improvement. 

Figure 13: Development of seawater desalination specific energy consumption and costs, indicating the limited 
room for optimization  

Sources: (Elimelech & Phillip, 2011) and (Shatat, Worall, & Riffat, 2013), 2030 is own projection 

3.4.2  Challenge 2: Turn brine treatment and disposal from a problem into an opportunity 

Desalination of seawater is associated with the production of brine. The term brine for the concentrate 
coming from a reverse osmosis plant has a negative connotation as if it is of the same class as toxic brines 
dumped in seas and rivers by chemical industries. However, the concentrate of a seawater reverse osmosis 
plant  neither  contains  many  chemical  additives  nor  hypersaline  (only  twice  the  seawater  concentration 
when  the  plants  operate  at  50%  water  recovery).  Although  this  statement  is  true,  sensitive  marine 
ecosystems may require high protection levels, which remains an issue when disposing of the brine (Pistochi 
et al., 2020).  Brines are dispersed into seawater, and chemical additions have been drastically reduced over 
the years, i.e., minimising the local aquatic ecological impact of brine outfalls (Buijs, 2020). However, it still 
is a point of attention to reduce chemical use and prevent discharge's local effects. For inland desalination 
of  brackish  water,  desalination  application  can  become  limited  by  the  availability  to  brine  discharge 
possibilities  of  the  concentrates.  High  doses  of  nitrates  can  be  present  in  the  concentrates.  Zero  Liquid 
Discharge  (ZLD)  are  considered  but  often  found  to  become  unfeasible  because  this  would  include  an 

7  i.e.,  not  including  site-specific  energy  consumption  for  intake,  pretreatment,  post-treatment,  and  brine 

discharge (which will add >1 kWh/m3). 

22 

 
 
                                           
evaporative crystallization process which is energy-intensive and thus costly. It underlines the importance 
of developments of emerging systems like membrane distillation. 

Brines from desalination, however, may allow collecting valuable minerals and metals, mainly when thermal 
brines  are  produced  that  are  much  more  concentrated  than  with  reverse  osmosis.  In  Saudi  Arabia,  for 
example, NEOM and the Saline Water Conversion Company have taken up the challenge of making brine 
mining technically and economically feasible (Buijs, 2020). In practice, this would result in excess amounts 
of salt deposits, and hence the question is to mine the valuable compounds only selectively. It underlines 
the importance of developments of emerging systems like electrochemical systems. Brine is also a potential 
energy  source  (pressure-retarded).  Both  minerals  and  energy  recovery  have  a  limited  physical  and 
economic scope and can reduce the costs more than representing a profitable investment in the absence 
of a strong case for alternative brine disposal solutions (Pistochi et al.,2020). 

Overall, brine management is a critical issue in desalination, without a single best solution since it is very 
much case dependent. Local solutions which are available in a place may not work somewhere else.  

3.4.3  Challenge 3: Enable second use of desalted water in agriculture 

In The EU Blue Economy Report 2020 (European Commission, 2020), it was already brought up that desalted 
water not only would serve the urban or agricultural needs, but it can provide even a net positive water 
balance to the water cycle (see also Figure 10). After its first use for municipal use, it can be further recycled 
into  the  environment,  e.g., when  treated  wastewater  effluent  provides  water  for  crop  irrigation.  It  was 
stated that the coupling of desalination for urban demand and water reuse for irrigation could therefore be 
seen as an adaptation measure and a way to mitigate the increasing water scarcity. Indeed, in Israel, with 
decades of treated wastewater reuse for irrigation, analyses revealed that the implementation of large-
scale desalination considerably reduced the salinity of treated wastewater to levels similar to freshwater. 
Hence,  this  enables  a  larger  share  of  wastewater  treatment  effluents  to  become  suitable  for  irrigation 
(Shtull-Trauring, Cohen, Ben-Hur, Tanny, & Bernstein, 2020).   

Despite salinity reduction, desalination as an enabler for secondary water use for irrigation needs some 
reconsideration and hence innovation. Potential negative implications of the reuse of desalted water for 
agriculture are the reduction in essential nutrients like calcium and magnesium. It leads to deficits for crops, 
with  unfavourable  Sodium  Absorption  Ratios  leading  to  less  permeable  soils  and  increasing  Boron 
concentrations, 
inorganics,  traces  of  organic  micro-pollutants 
(pharmaceutical residues, hormones, microorganisms) will be used for reuse.  

limiting  crop  growth.  Besides  the 

3.4.4  Challenge 4: Take the holistic approach and look for systemic innovation 

There can be a strong case for applying desalination in specific locations of intense water scarcity and high 
water demand for society and the economy. When zooming out, there are also clear limitations to the use 
of desalination to alleviate water scarcity. Using desalinated seawater inland, especially on higher altitudes, 
is economically challenging. Applying desalinated seawater for essential staple foods (maize, rice, cereals, 
wheat, millet, sorghum, potatoes, cassava, yams and taro) is economically impossible today and unlikely to 
improve in the future. Producing 1 kg of rice of wheat requires around 1m3 of water. Adding 1 euro for the 
cost price of desalinated water would make these crops too expensive for a large part of humanity.  

In the summertime, when vegetation is missing, heat will be building up, but evapotranspiration will be 
missing, and hence condensation may not happen. This way, lack of vegetation will harm water availability 
(Figure 9, left). Besides forests also the land use in agriculture is an important driver. Ploughed land hurts 
summer droughts. In addition, due to water scarcity, the soil is impacted, reducing the chance of rainwater 
infiltration.  

23 

 
Figure 14: Desalination placed in a holistic perspective of restoring watersheds 

Source: Own elaboration 

Especially  in  the  Mediterranean  area,  a  large  part  of  the  annual  rainfall  arrives  after  summer  in  huge 
cloudbursts, often causing severe flooding of land and cities. Also, here vegetation plays a role; tree roots 
– and the animals they attract, such as ants, termites and worms – help create holes in the soil for the water 
to flow through. Plants, bushes and scrubs also help to retain rain and protect the soil.  

It  is  worthwhile  to  explore desalination in  the  context  of  strategies  and approaches  which  enhance  the 
natural  sponge  effect  of  soils,  use  forests  to  attract  rain  clouds  from  sea  to  land  (see  Figure  9,  right). 
Vegetation and predominantly deciduous forests help to attract clouds from seas and oceans. In addition, 
it is shown that these forests emit large amounts of aerosols that contain tiny biological particles – fungal 
spores,  pollen,  microorganisms  and  general  biological  debris  –  that  are  swept  up  into  the  atmosphere, 
which in turn trigger rain. Rain can only fall when atmospheric water condensates into droplets, and these 
tiny particles make that more accessible by providing surfaces for the water to condense. Some of these 
plant-based microorganisms even help water molecules freeze at higher temperatures, which is crucial for 
cloud formation in temperate zones. 

Moreover, desalination can be a sustainable way to replenish our water cycle: after primary uses (industrial 
or domestic), the reuse of desalinated water for irrigation enables agriculture in otherwise unproductive 
regions and (or) forest growth. The ensuing evapotranspiration feeds the water cycle, further enhancing 
precipitation  while  allowing  carbon  sequestration  by  plants.  In  this  way,  desalination  may  reduce 
freshwater abstraction and provide a net water surplus and thus help preserve and restore freshwater-
dependent ecosystems (Pistochi et al., 2020). 

Increasing water availability, resilience and climate adaptation can be supported by drawing lessons from 
these recent insights, often missing in models and policies. “Increasing organic farming and biodiversity-
rich landscape features on agricultural land”, as mentioned in the European Green Deal, would also support 
this type of intervention.  

3.4.5  Other challenges 

Desalination technologies are known for their vulnerability to fouling and their relative low flexibility for 
peak  or  intermittent  operation.  It  can  be  a  limitation  for  the  application  since  desalination  plants  with 
relatively  high  operational  expenditures  are  ideal  for  standby  capacity  (e.g.,  peak  season).  Areas  of 
innovation  in  this  respect  include  process  engineering  (pre-treatment,  process  conditions)  and  material 
science (low fouling materials).  

24 

 
 
 
 
4  Desalination from a regional perspective 

Three examples of implementation of desalination technologies in Europe are presented in this section. 
They represent various water source characteristics from the different sea basins, applications and scales, 
and  other  needs  for  research  and  innovation  (Figure  16).  Each  case  starts  with  describing  the  specific 
challenges,  how  and  why  desalination  is  being  addressed,  and  the  issues  surrounding  the  (future) 
implementation. Each case study concludes with the research and innovation needs that were identified. 

Figure 15: Three case studies of desalination, each with specific characteristics 

4.1  Desalination in the EU Water Scarce regions 

4.1.1 

Integrating water sources: desalination in Murcia 

With annual precipitation of only 300-350mm, the Spanish region of Murcia is one of the driest regions in 
Europe.  At  the  same  time,  through  the  years,  it  has  become  the  fruit  and  vegetable  garden  of  Europe, 
primarily due to irrigation and extensive green-house agricultural production. The semi-arid Mediterranean 
climate of the region makes it ideally suited to produce high-value agricultural products off-season. In the 
winter months, these fetch premium prices and fruits are supplied to North-Western European markets, 
such  as  United  Kingdom,  Germany,  France,  The  Netherlands  and  Belgium.  Over  2.5  million  tons  of 
agricultural products are exported annually, generating over €2.5 billion, representing around 30% of all 
exports  from  the  region.  The  sector  directly  represents  24%  of  the  regional  GDP  and  indirectly  50% 
(FreshPlaza, 2020). No wonder that water is a critical resource in this region. Murcia region depends on 
various water sources for its water supply. However, the water demand in the area outpaces the supply 
and increases the water provision to match the total water demand is not likely to happen in the short term. 
Hence, not surprisingly, the Eastern coastline of Spain is the epicenter of European desalination capacity. 
Nevertheless, whether the desalination can provide sufficient water to address the needs in the Murcia 
region, how is the integration of different water sources organized?   

Murcia  is  a  Spanish  region  with  1.5  million  inhabitants  on  a  surface  area  of  11,313  km2,  which  is  2.2% 
Spanish.  It  has  188,000  hectares  (1,880  km2)  of  irrigated  land,  with  highly  efficient  water  use  of  3,500 
m3/ha/year  (i.e., 350mm).  The  region has  a  water  deficit  of  around 440  million  m3/year  (Murcia  Today, 
2017). Annually the area has a water demand of 1,843 million m3/year and a water supply of around 1,403 
million m3/year (Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura, 2020). The water shortage is caused by the low 
precipitation levels and the growth in surface area of irrigated lands and coastal tourism developments, 
especially in the ’90s with extensive tourist facilities (Seaview houses and apartments) and golf clubs.  

25 

 
 
Figure 16: Annual regional water demand, water supply  in million m3/year; Map of Murcia region with 
indicative locations of desalination plants 

Source:  Own elaboration (source for the numbers in the text below). 

As can be seen in the breakdown of the regional water demand in Figure 17 (Left), regional water demand 
consists of 258 million m3/year for households (including industry and golf fields), 39 million m3/year to 
maintain the aquatic ecology in Segura river, and 1,546 million m3/year for agriculture. It means that every 
year agriculture receives around 400 million m3 less than requested. As shown in Figure 17 (Right), various 
water sources are combined to supply water to the region. Approximately 400 million m3/year is available 
from  the  Segura  river,  218  million  m3/year  is  available  from  the  groundwater,  322  million  m3/year  is 
transferred from Tajo and Negratin river basins. Water reuse supplies 270 million m3/year, and desalination 
accounts for around 193 million m3/year.  

The  region  of  Murcia  is  the  European  frontrunner  in  water  reuse,  with  currently  already  98%  of  all  the 
wastewater  effluent  being  reused  in  agriculture.  In  the  long-term  planning  of  the  Segura  river  basin 
authority  (CHS),  there  is  only  little  room  to  increase  water  reuse  with  around  20  million  m3/year 
(Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura, 2020). 

The maximum water transfer amount through the combined use of aqueducts Tajo-Segura and, to a lesser 
extent, Negratin-Segura (typically around 17 million m3/year) in the past accounted for the volume of 540 
million  m³/year.  However,  in  the  two  most  recent  hydrological  years  (2018-2019  and  2019-2020),  the 
transferred water volume was much less abundant and accounted for around 313 and 294 million m3/year, 
respectively (Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura, 2020). During the period of drought 2015 until 2018, 
the transfer was substantially lower (142-188 million m3/year). Droughts pose a triple risk. There is less 
water available for the transfer, but there is also less water available in the Segura catchment area. On top 
of that, the arable land also received less water directly. In the years of drought, the only reliable water 
source for agriculture purposes in the region was desalination.  

Desalinated water is supplied by a whole array of desalination plants (Figure 17, Right). The most extensive 
facilities are located right above the Murcia region in Alicante (region of Valencia). Alicante-I has 18 million 
m3/ year, and Alicante-II a 25 million m3/ year capacity and was built with ERDF funding in 2008 (European 
Commission, EU regional and urban development , 2007). To prevent ecological impact, the desalination 
plant Alicante-I rejects brines through a pipe at a 1 km distance from the plant and 1.6 km distance from 
the Posidonia Oceanica meadow (Mancomunidad de los Canales del Taibilla, 2020). Increasing the share of 
desalination might be limited by the accumulation of boron. In the future, the desalination capacity in the 
region is likely going to increase by about 32% from 158 to 209 million m3/year in the period 2015-2027 
(Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura, 2020).  

Brackish groundwater is another water source in Campo de Cartagena, where farmers often own Reverse 
Osmosis desalination installations. The brines of these brackish water desalination units are rejected into 
the adjacent Mar Menor (Figure 17), which would deal with the salt content. The Mar Menor, with 180km2 
of surface, is the largest hypersaline lagoon in Europe (Región de Murcia, 2020). The brines, however, also 
contain  high  levels  of  nitrates,  which  added  to  the  gradual  process  of  eutrophication.  In  2016, 
eutrophication started to be visible as a “green soup”. In 2018, the regional government passed a law with 

26 

 
 
urgent  measures  for  Mar  Menor  intending  to  reduce  nitrates.  In  August  2019,  another  phytoplankton 
bloom was observable. In October 2019, a high impact rainfall event occurred between Murcia and Alicante, 
and the whole area was flooded. The so-called “cold drop” discharged 60 million m3 of water and 100.000 
tons  of  sediments,  including  nitrates,  phosphates  and  ammonia,  into  Mar  Menor  (We  Are  Water 
Foundation, 2019). As a result, anoxia leads to mass death and starvation of fish and crustaceans.  

4.1.2  Desalination issues 

The prevailing water shortages in the region will not be easy to solve with the supply side measures alone, 
like with increasing the desalination capacity. A combination of the demand and supply-side measures will 
be needed to optimize the use of available water in the region. Improving water supply is not an easy task, 
and as can be seen in Table 3, it has many limitations, making supply-side measures alone not feasible. 
However, there is some  room for new technological development to remove some of the current and 
future environmental and health concerns related to seawater desalination and brackish groundwater in 
the region.  

When looking at the demand side, the already initiated improvements in water efficiency in agriculture are 
essential. The efficiency in urban areas with greywater reuse for domestic purposes would reduce urban 
water  usage  and  the  overall  potential  of  water  reuse  within  the  region.  Nevertheless,  increased  water 
efficiency in urban and industrial areas should be promoted and lower demand in periods of drought. Due 
to socio-economic and employment reasons, the possible reduction of agricultural surface size is a sensitive 
issue, although this might become unavoidable to prepare for future climate change scenarios. Converting 
part  of  the  currently  irrigated  lands  into  rewilding  areas  could  increase  regional  biodiversity,  enhance 
natural vegetation and hence evapotranspiration, act as a water sponge, capture sediments during natural 
floods, and increase infiltration rainwater to underground aquifers.  

Fertilizers used in Campo de Cartagena end up in the superficial Cuaternario aquifer, which in turn is used 
as a well for irrigation water after the process of desalination. With current membranes, nitrates end up in 
the brine and are removed from the fields. With a new generation of selective membranes, the desalinated 
water could include the nitrates, which can be reused on the fields, while the brines - without nitrates - 
could safely be discharged into Mar Menor. This approach would also reduce the groundwater infiltration 
into Mar Menor, which would minimise nitrate flows.  

Table 4: Available water sources and limitations to increased usage 

Source 

Limitation  

Increased precipitation in 
Segura river basin  

Although this seems the best solution, the increase in annual precipitation often  occurs in 
intense  flash  floods,  called  “cold  drops”,  and  does  not  increase  the  available  freshwater 
supply but does cause enormous damage. 

Desalination  

Water Reuse  

Water Transfers 

(Brackish) 

Groundwater  

Desalination  currently  forms  around  14%  of  the  overall  mix.  The  amount  of  boron  in  the 
irrigation and drinking water creates the limiting factor. Desalinated water is mainly used in 
the adjacent areas, so locally the share of desalinated water is already higher.  

The region is already at 98% water reuse, so at this moment no room for improvement. With 
additional  water  supply  to  urban  and  industrial  in  the  future  (e.g.  from  desalination),  the 
share of water reuse could increase in parallel. 

Water  transfers  have  become  an  increasingly  hot  political  topic.  The  amount  of  water 
available for transfers depends on rainfall, local use and water needed for the natural flow 
of  the  river  of  origin  (e.g.  Tajo).  Although  550  million  m3/  year  is  the  maximum,  200-350 
million m3/ year is more likely. Huge increases are not expected.  

Over  the  past  years,  more  rainfall  along  the  littoral  zone  of  Murcia  and  Valencia  has  also 
increased  groundwater  availability  to  some  extent.  The  main  issue  is  the  nitrates 
accumulating  in  the  brines  after  RO  treatment  of  the  brackish  groundwater.  These  brines 
pose a threat to Mar Menor. There is little room to increase groundwater use but an urgency 
to improve the environmental impact.    

27 

 
High  concentrations  of  boron  in  the  water  represent  a  severe  problem  for  domestic  and  agriculture 
utilizations. The recent EU drinking water directive defines an upper limit of 1 mg-B/l. In addition, most 
crops are sensitive to boron levels >0.75 mg/l in irrigation water. The boron problem is magnified by the 
partial (∼60%) removal of boron in reverse osmosis (RO) desalination due to the poor ionization of boric 
acid  and  the  accumulation  of  boron  in  domestic  sewage  effluents  (Polat,  Vengosh,  Pankratov,  &  Polat, 
2004).  Therefore,  the  high  levels  of  boron  pose  a  problem  when  using  desalinated  water  directly  as 
irrigation or drinking water. It now limits irrigation and drinking water from desalination plants in the Murcia 
region to other water sources.  

Groundwater  in  Murcia,  both  in  littoral  and  inland  aquifers,  have  relatively  high salt  contents.  Applying 
inland RO systems leads to the accumulation of conductivity and salt in sewage waters and surface waters. 
Mixing  wastewater  or  surface  water  with  desalinated  water  could reduce  the  conductivity  (from  brines 
from desalinated groundwater) and the boron concentration (desalinated seawater). How could the mixing 
of water with higher conductivity and desalinated water with higher boron content be optimized? Would 
it be possible to limit boron levels in desalinated seawater through new membrane designs? Would it be 
possible to reduce salt content and conductivity of in-land brine discharges by applying technologies that 
would remove the salt altogether from the brines, using the specific climatological conditions of 300 days 
of sunshine per year and prevailing dry weather conditions?  

Regarding the potential for rewilding Murcia, it would be interesting to see how far some of the biodiversity 
targets of the EU and the aim to increase protected land and seas to 30% could take place in the region. 
Preferably, the sponge effect of land-based natural areas would also benefit the absorption and removal of 
nutrients from surface and ground waters, leading to an improved water quality inflow into the Mar Menor. 
In  addition,  measures  to  remove  sediments  and  nutrients  from  this  coastal  saltwater  lagoon  could  be 
investigated. 

4.1.3  Regional smart specialisation strategy 

The  regional  innovation  smart  specialisation  strategy  of  Murcia  (RIS3MUR)  has  selected  the  following 
research and innovation priorities (El Instituto de Fomento Murcia, 2020):  

- 

The food and agricultural innovative activities, including their water/environment and 
logistics/transport facets. 

-  Drivers: energy, maritime and marine activities. 
-  Quality of life: tourism, health and habitat. 

In the Eye@RIS3 database, the RIS3 strategy of Murcia highlights, among others topics, the Environment 
and Water Cycle with the economic domains water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation 
activities;  water  collection,  treatment  and  supply;  transportation  and  storage  of  water  (European 
Commission,  Smart  Specialisation  Platform,  2020).  In  addition,  among  others,  the  strategy  lists  KETs  in 
Agrofood  Industry,  Energy  (including  Energy  Efficiency),  Maritime  and  Marine  Industries  (including  Blue 
Growth & Blue Renewable Energy).   

The RIS3MUR indicates the relative sizes of economic sectors in terms of employment (Figure 18). It clearly 
shows a highly specialised water sector, which might be relatively small compared to other sectors in total 
economic size. Still, it is a primary enabler of the most important economic sector of agri-food activities 
(agriculture and food processing industries). It includes highly efficient water use (irrigation), water reuse 
(WWTPs, including tertiary treatment), irrigation canals and running desalination plants.    

Concerning water, the autonomous region has exclusive competencies. The strategic importance of water 
is clearly shown by the “Consejería de Agua, Agricultura, Ganadería, Pesca y Medio Ambiente”, the regional 
ministry of Water, Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Environment, whose name starts with water. 

28 

 
 
Figure 17: Regional employment (%), and the level of knowledge and specialisation per sector   

Source: Adapted from the RIS3 of Murcia (Instituto de Fomento Murcia, 2020) 

There is also a high degree of water knowledge, expertise and water-related companies. Overall, Murcia is 
already highly active in tackling the regional water challenges, issues and shortages. At the same time, there 
is  room  for  research  and  development  of  water  treatment,  desalination  and  reuse.  Participating  in 
interregional  collaboration  partnerships,  such  as  Water  Smart  Territories (European  Commission,  Smart 
Specialisation Platform, 2020), would be a logical next step to access more knowledge and expertise and 
share benefit from good practices. Water scarcity is increasing in many EU regions, and the expertise in 
Murcia could be applied elsewhere and create business opportunities for regional companies, especially in 
the agri-food sector. 

4.2  Desalination in the EU Western and Northern regions  

4.2.1  Adapting to Change: Desalination in Sussex and Hampshire 

Desalination can become an unavoidable part of water schemes to obtain a drought-resilient water supply, 
not only in Southern Europe but also in Western and Northern Europe. For instance, climate change and 
population growth put increasing pressure on England’s water resources: a one  out of four chance of a 
severe drought before 2050. England’s National Infrastructure Commission estimates the cost of building 
resilience to droughts is almost half as expensive as relying on emergency measures in times of drought 
(saving up to £20 billion over the next 30 years). Despite not being part of the EU, this case can provide 
information  about  how  desalination  is  positioned  in  seasonal  droughts  and  how  the  customer  would 
receive desalination in Western and Northern Europe. 

As  an  example,  the  regional  water  distribution  service  company  “Southern  Water”  supplies  5.3  million 
m3/day to 2.5 million customers (1.1 million households) in West Sussex and Hampshire, as well as it treats 
7.2 million m3/day of wastewater from 4.6 million customers (2 million households) for these regions and 
East Sussex and Kent (Figure 20). Southern Water has identified the most significant challenge in its Water 
Resource  Management  Plan:  the  loss  of  available  water  during  droughts.  A  regional  deficit  of  294,000 
m3/day is predicted by 2030, with a shortage of 188,000 m3/day in Hampshire alone. The trigger for this 
deficit  is  a  significant  reduction  in  the  amount  of  water  Southern  Water  has  available  not  only  for  the 
customers of the Hampshire South but also for the Isle of Wight, due to the implementation of sustainability 
reductions on sensitive rivers like the Test and Itchen during periods of drought. Proactive investment in 
water  resources  can  avoid  disproportionate  recovery  costs  and  economic  damage.  The  National 
Infrastructure Commission estimates the cost of building resilience to droughts being £21 billion over the 
next 30 years – while the emergency costs could be £40 billion  

29 

 
 
Figure 18: Southern Water’s area of operation for water supply and wastewater treatment with locations of 
planned desalination plants in Fawley and Shoreham 

Southern  Water  plans  to  prevent  deterioration  in  service  by  reducing  leakage  from  the  transport  and 
distribution network, constructing a regional grid that enables water trades crossing service borders, and 
protecting and enhancing flows and natural habitats of their watercourses to improve resilience to drought. 
Despite extensive water reuse and water trading schemes into the plan, a significant supply and demand 
deficit  will  remain  in  Hampshire  and  Sussex  regions.  Therefore,  Southern  Water  is  proposing  the 
construction of two desalination facilities at Fawley and Shoreham. The proposed desalination scheme at 
Fawley  includes  constructing  a  desalination  plant  to  provide  the  capacity  of  75,000  m3/day  of  treated, 
desalinated  water,  which  probably  initially  will  be  run  at  only  1/3  of  this  capacity  under  non-drought 
conditions. The Fawley desalination plant will be based on seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) technology 
and would cost £255 million to construct (Southern Water, 2019). 

4.2.2  Desalination issues 

In the business plan 2020-2025, Southern Water states: “In response to customer and stakeholder feedback, 
we  have  sought  to  maximise  the  use  of  more  environmentally-sensitive  solutions  such  as  water  reuse 
schemes and demand management options. However, the scale of the deficit we are facing has resulted in 
less-preferred  schemes,  such  as  desalination,  is  required  to  ensure  a  resilient  service.” (Southern  Water, 
2019).  Remarkably,  desalination  here  is  classified  as  less-preferred  based  on  a  survey.  Customers  were 
asked  to  rank  their  preferences  for  supply-side  solutions  as  reservoirs,  water  reuse,  water  trading  and 
desalination. “Our customers told us that they consider desalination to be the last resort – it was ranked 
10th out of 10 options, although they also recognised that it might be needed.  

In general, water supply and seawater desalination require further investigation of public knowledge and 
perception of processes and impacts. Future research will help clarify the public attitude toward seawater 
desalination and influence public policy processes to approve and set operating conditions for new facilities. 

Future research will help integrate seawater desalination plants in sensitive habitats and eventually even 
be coupled with restoration processes like in this case. 

4.2.3  Regional smart specialisation strategy 

Brighton is part of the Local Enterprise Partnership Coast to Capital, situated in the South East region in the 
United Kingdom. The Coast to Capital growth hub encompasses the economic hubs of Greater Brighton, 
West Sussex and East Surrey.  

In the 2014-2020 Coast to Capital European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) Strategy, the area of 
Brighton and Hove is described as an internationally recognised university city, with clusters of creative and 
digital businesses, financial services and a significant visitor economy. Brighton lies at the heart of a new 
City Region comprising port and market towns, including Lewes, Newhaven and Shoreham.  

30 

 
 
Important regional sectors and strengths are Creative Digital and IT (CDIT), Financial & Business Services 
and construction. It also lists essential sectors for business development but outside the priority areas: land-
based, food and drink manufacturing and tourism.  

Despite direct access to the sea and port facilities, there is no reference to the Blue Economy. The only 
reference is the EON Rampion Wind Farm, which was in the planning phase and was realised in 2018. It has 
400 MW of installed capacity, 40% lower than initially planned, mainly because of installing smaller turbines 
to  address  regional  concerns  over  visual  impact.  The  Port  of  Newhaven  houses  the  administration  and 
maintenance offices of the wind park.  

The environmental concerns were also a critical point in the lower level of public support for desalination. 
Part of the city of Brighton is called Kemptown, clearly referring to the aquatic ecosystem, which used to 
be widespread along the coastline. A strategy to revive the kemp fields combined with the sustainable use 
of desalination might gain popular support.  

The  RIS3  strategy  of  Brighton  and  Coast  to  Capital  does  not  include  a  Blue  Growth  strategy.  There  are 
regional needs for solutions, including ocean energy and desalination, supplied from other UK or EU regions. 
Water provided by desalination could become more critical in the future to support sectors of economic 
importance for the area, such as land-based, food and drink manufacturing.  

4.3  Desalination in the EU Island regions 

4.3.1  Solution for scarce water islands: desalination in Gotland 

Water supply on islands is often very vulnerable due to limited natural resources of fresh water and large 
seasonal fluctuations in demand associated with tourism. Water shortages may ultimately lead to rationing 
or  cutting  off  supplies  on  a  “pro-rata”  basis.  In  some  case,  even  freshwater  is  shipped  to  the  islands. 
Desalination would be the “irresistible solution” as it unlocks the abundant surrounding seawater as a water 
resource  and  solves  the  dependency  on  climatic  conditions  and  aquifer  replenishment.  It  provides  the 
flexibility to cope with peak season demands. 

On the other hand, however, desalination makes the water supply on islands dependent on energy supply, 
pricing and variability. Hence, desalination on islands may be seen as a shifting problem from one scarcity 
(freshwater)  to  another (energy)  (Speckhahn  &  Isgren, 2019),  thus  not  providing  a  sustainable  solution. 
What are the drivers for islands to install desalination, and how do they cope with drawbacks? 

An  example  of  an  island  that  has  implemented  desalination  recently  is  the  island  of  Gotland,  Sweden. 
Located  at  around  90  km  from  the  mainland,  it  has  about  3,140  km2  (Figure  21),  and  its  population  is 
approximately  58,000.  The  island  is  a  popular  holiday  destination.  During  the  summer  holiday  season, 
tourism drastically increases the number of water users, e.g., in July 2016, 520,000 incoming visitors were 
recorded  (2016:  2.2  million  visitors  spending  1  million  guest  nights)  (Florin,  2017).  It  means  that  the 
population on a peak day to be served with water can be estimated to over 83,000 persons. Gotland is very 
dependent on groundwater for its water supply. It is also true for all of the properties that have individual 
water sources. Over the past few years, groundwater reservoirs have not filled to the same high degree as 
previously, and the levels are increasingly becoming very low. 

31 

 
 
Figure 19: Map of Gotland (Sweden) showing locations of desalination plants 

In 2019 a broad stakeholder survey was performed (Speckhahn & Isgren, 2019), which suggested four main 
drivers  install  desalination  capacity:  First,  not  surprisingly,  desalination  holds  the  promise  of  quick  and 
stable access to an infinite water resource; second, desalination enables the protection of groundwater 
resources and the prevention saltwater intrusion by reducing the extraction of groundwater needed for 
supply; third, desalination provides clean water whereas in the past quality issues were reported for the 
supply  from  groundwater  (among  others,  hardness);  fourth,  desalination  removes  the  barrier  of  water 
limitations for the economic development of the agricultural and tourism sectors. 

4.3.2  Desalination issues 

The  survey  through  the  stakeholders'  interviews  also  offered  specific  concerns  that  facilitated  a  broad 
societal consultation of desalination solutions in the island, which may be helpful in other similar water-
scarce islands. Despite all the benefits, desalination should still complement other solutions (Speckhahn 
& Isgren, 2019). The concerns mentioned about these shortcomings were related mainly to the higher water 
costs from desalination than what the citizens used to pay for groundwater. However, the high energy input 
typically necessary for the desalination process has a leverage of typically 3 to 4 times lower salinity of the 
Baltic Sea around Gotland than global average seawater. Hence, the energy consumption is much lower. 
150 wind turbines supply a large portion of the island’s energy island with an installed capacity of 185MW 
(2018),  delivering  432  GWh  annually,  which  is  about  45%  of  the  island’s  energy  consumption  (2016) 
(Nilsson, 2019). To put this in perspective, 5.6 GWh would be used for desalination when operating at total 
capacity year-round (3 million m3/y with an estimated energy consumption of 2 kWh/m3). In the island’s 
capital Herrvik, solar panels have been installed to produce electricity for the desalination plant. In summer, 
peak water demand coincides with the highest energy production by these solar panels (Swedish Portal for 
Climate Change Adaptation, 2018). Furthermore, the desalination plants would be considered to operate 
for peak shaving of water demand instead of baseload water supply.  

Another concern mentioned by the stakeholders was that the desalted water could not be sufficiently mixed 
with groundwater at the desalination plants to obtain the desired mineral content (Speckhahn & Isgren, 
2019). However, this was mitigated by adding calcium and sodium carbonates, resulting in a composition 
which fulfils the requirements placed on drinking water by the National Food Agency (Swedish Portal for 
Climate Change Adaptation, 2018). 

Finally,  some  concerns  were  probably  not  caused  by  desalination  itself.  The  citizens  were  worried  that 
desalination might reduce the pressure on different industrial actors (among others, the mining industry) 
to decrease their consumption or provide legitimacy for their potential water misuse. Some fears were also 

32 

 
 
displayed that by more abundant water availability, careful attention to the quality of the island's scarce 
water resources might get lost, e.g. concentration for the ongoing problem of high rainwater runoff into 
the  sea  due  to  wetland  loss.  “The  politician  argued  that  there  is  a  risk  that  water-related  ecosystem 
services are forgotten if desalination gets framed as the ultimate solution” (Speckhahn & Isgren, 2019).  

It should be noted that Gotland is a frontrunner in the implementation  of renewable energy, especially 
when also the surrounding offshore wind parks are counted, and its biomass plant for combined heat and 
power (CHP). However, there can be a tradeoff between water scarcity and energy scarcity for other islands, 
which requires innovations in integrating renewable energy and desalination technologies. For example, 
the smaller Isles of Scilly are still almost entirely dependent on expensive diesel electricity supply. For these 
islands, the challenge is to implement a smart energy management system together with the desalination 
plant to produce the desalted water with the smallest possible amount of diesel energy and with the most 
significant possible amount of PV excess energy (Ciriminna, Pagliaro, Meneguzzo, & Pecoraino, 2016). 

Re-mineralization of desalted water by adding chemicals indeed may lead to an acceptable composition for 
first use. Still, it would not  allow for a second use for agriculture or restoring wetlands due to  a lack of 
magnesium.  Note  that  nor  for  first  use  and  probably  neither  for  second  use  are  sufficient  amounts  of 
groundwater  available.  Innovations  to  recover  magnesium  from  seawater  are  needed  to  enable  the 
opportunity for second use. Lastly, Gotland advocates taking the holistic approach in which desalination is 
integrated as enabling technology to restore the natural water system. 

4.3.3  Regional smart specialisation strategy 

Gotland lists two priorities in the regional growth program: Tourism and Food. Eye@RIS3 also highlights 
these  priorities  and  further  specifies  under  food:  the  scientific  domains  Industrial  production  and 
technology, Manufacture and food products and Manufacture and beverages. For tourism: the economic 
domains are accommodation, food and beverage services activities.  

All the concerned sectors: tourism, hospitality, agricultural food production and industrial food-processing 
require water as an enabling resource. The RIS3 does not specify any economic of a scientific domain to 
solve the regional imbalance in water use or develop water solutions, such as desalination. 

4.4  Opportunities for the next generation of Smart Specialisation Strategies 

The  design  of  ERDF  2021-2027  seems  to  offer  better  opportunities  for  interregional  collaboration  than 
during the past Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF).  

Murcia  could  benefit  from  this  by  including  interregional  collaboration  into  the  ERDF  Operational 
Programme.  The  initiative  of  the  Interregional  Innovation  Investments  (I3)  could  also  offer  exciting 
opportunities for Murcia as a living lab for testing new solutions for optimizing water efficiency in water-
scarce regions. In addition, it could provide opportunities for regional solutions and expertise to be applied 
abroad. With substantial post-pandemic financial support for green recovery starting in 2021, the Recovery 
and  Resilience  Facility  also  offers  the  opportunity  to  introduce  even  more  ecological  and  sustainable 
solutions  in  the  region.  Combined  with  the  enhanced  focus  on  biodiversity  in  the  Common Agricultural 
Policy (CAP), the region could intensify efforts to make the agricultural sector more sustainable, resilient 
and  biodiverse.  Maintaining  cover  crops  reduce  the  rainwater  run-off  and  soil  erosion  during  intensive 
precipitations and floods (DANA, “gota fría”), which are often affecting the region (La Verdad, 2019) and 
might even intensify with climate change.  

Water  supplied  by  desalination  could  also  become  more  critical  in  supporting  sectors  of  economic 
importance for the UK and EU regions in Western and Northern Europe. With the UK's departure from the 
EU, regional smart specialization strategies within the UK are uncertain. The UK might apply for membership 
of Horizon Europe, which is widely expected. Like the South-East region in the UK, however, many European 
regions  have  not  included  water  in  their  regional  smart  specialisation  strategies.  Therefore,  they  will 
depend  on  other  regions  to  develop  their  solutions  or  use  living  labs  in  the  different  areas  to  test 
technological solutions that their regional universities and companies might grow. A good region for testing 
new water technologies would be Friesland, located in The Northern Netherlands. The Region of Friesland 
has included water technology in its development strategy already in 2003. The topic was later included 

33 

 
in its RIS3 and has since developed several demonstration sites and a whole innovation ecosystem called 
WaterCampus Leeuwarden. There is a specific demonstration site for desalination, wastewater treatment, 
drinking  water  treatment  and  even  renewable  energy  production  by  mixing  salt  water  and  fresh  water 
(salinity gradient energy). The Campus, city and the region act as a living lab for water technology, support 
European  start-ups  in  the  field  and  are  also  a  meeting  point  for  Dutch,  European  and  global  water 
technology companies. With over 200 European and international company members and collaboration 
with  25  European  universities,  it  provides  a  unique  insight  into  existing  solutions  and  scientific 
developments worldwide. Water conditions in South-East England are comparable to the Netherlands, as 
both  are  located  at  the  North-Sea  shores.  Friesland  also  borders  the  Wadden  Sea,  a  “Natura  2000” 
protected area, requiring specific solutions that address this aquatic ecosystem's needs.  

Gotland is a region that acquires the water solution from other areas. Hence, Gotland could be an excellent 
living  lab for  testing  the  holistic  approach  in  which  desalination  is  integrated  as  enabling  technology  to 
restore the natural water system a societal as from a hydrogeological perspective. It would be in line with 
the more comprehensive proactive implementation of sustainable energy solutions, such as solar, wind and 
biomass energy and a holistic, sustainable approach to the water scarcity problems. It would thus enable 
more sustainable, resilient and ecological management of the islands’ hydrology. 

Around  20  European  regions  have  already  become  members  of  the  thematic  S3  partnership  on  Water 
Smart Territories, supported by the Smart Specialisation Platform for Industrial Modernisation. Industrial 
modernisation requires significant investment efforts. The Regional Smart Specialisation Strategies (RIS3) 
help prioritising and aligning the efforts between public and private stakeholders in EU regions and allocate 
EU,  regional  and  national  funds  in  a  focused  and  efficient  way.  At  the  same  time,  there  are  clear 
opportunities  to  engage  in  strategic  interregional  cooperation  along  with  shared  RIS3  priorities  to 
complement each other’s competencies, share infrastructure, and develop joint investment projects.  

The new programming period foresees a budget of around 500 M EUR to be invested through a specific 
Interregional Innovation Investment (I3) instrument where specific innovative solutions developed in one 
region shall be demonstrated at an end-user located in another EU regions. It will probably be the most 
“close  to  market  instrument”  available  for  financing  innovative  solutions  by  the  European  Commission. 
Besides this specific instrument, regions can also use their regional ERDF funding to support interregional 
collaboration and use ERDF for funding synergies with other EU programmes such as Horizon Europe. With 
the exceptional situation of COVID-19, the European Commission has launched specific funding through 
Next Generation EU. Depending on regional needs and strategic choices, two of the three funding pillars: 
Recovery  and  Resilience  Facility  and  the  React-EU,  could  be  used  to  install  new  or  improve  existing 
desalination plants. In either case, the funding will need to be allocated by December 31st 2023. In some 
regions,  climate  adaptation  increased  freshwater  availability,  and  ecological  investments  have  been 
mentioned as possible intervention areas, for instance, in Spain.  

With 1,800 Billion EUR available for the next seven years, the most significant European budget is to be 
spent  through  the  alignment  with  the  objectives  of  the  European  Green  Deal.  These  investments  will 
transform the European economy, industries, and society into a more climate-resilient economy. Innovative 
specialisation strategies will allow place-based innovation ecosystems to optimize the use of local, regional, 
national and European funding opportunities and facilitating funding synergies. It will maximise the impact 
of  these  various  programmes  and  boost  research,  innovation,  start-ups  and  scale-ups.  It  can  form  a 
foundation for new economic growth, including in Blue Growth in general and desalination in particular.  

34 

 
5  Conclusion and Policy Recommendations 

5.1  Conclusion 

In many ways, opportunities and effects are resulting from the emerging desalination sector for European 
Union’s  agendas  (section  3.1)  like  The  Water  Reuse  Regulation,  European  Biodiversity  Strategy,  Zero 
Pollution  Action  Plan,  The  European  Green  Deal,  The  UN  Sustainable  Development  Goals,  and  the  HEU 
Innovation Missions (section 3.2): Climate Adaptation, StarFish2030, Healthy Soil. Its status as an emerging 
sector in the EU policy can be measured in terms of the modest share of EU contributions over 2014-2019 
(section 3.3).  

For the coming period 2020-2025, it is estimated that investments for new capacity will be €400 million. 
Still,  reinvestments  in  outdated  plants  may  count  to  €1  billion  and membrane replacements  to  another 
€380 million (section 2.1). Analysis of vendors of desalination technologies currently in the market shows 
that Europe is a central hub for innovation. Regarding patent activity and licensing opportunities, however, 
Europe  seems  lagging  (section  2.2).  Desalination  challenges  that  need  to  be  addressed  by  innovation 
include:  (1)  Make  desalination  more  energy-efficient  and  cost-effective,  (2)  Turn  brine  treatment  and 
disposal from a problem into an opportunity, (3) Enable second use of desalted water in agriculture, and 
(4) Take the holistic approach and look for systemic innovation (section 2.3). 

These challenges are supported by the case study of the Murcia Region (section 4.1). In contrast, the other 
case  studies  of  the  South-East  UK  Region  (section  4.2)  and  Gotland  Region  (section  4.3)  also  revealed 
societal acceptance and awareness related to impacts of desalination as a solution for water scarcity. Also, 
the  design  of  ERDF  2021-2027  seems  to  offer  good  opportunities  for  interregional  collaboration  on 
desalination issues (section 4.4).  

5.2  Recommendations 

The  challenges  mentioned  above  could  be  linked  to  specific  programmes  and  interventions  from  the 
following  European  programming  period.  If  these  are  applied  in  a  concerted  effort,  a  considerable 
improvement of the current status quo related to desalination and blue growth can be obtained. In the 
Multi-annual Financial Framework 2021-2027, many programmes in which some of the innovation needs -
described above- can be addressed.  

PRIMA, the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area, is the most ambitious joint 
programme  in  Euro-Mediterranean  cooperation.  It  is  paid  by  participating  countries  and  co-funded  by 
Horizon Europe. PRIMA aims to build research and innovation capacities and to develop knowledge and 
standard innovative solutions for agro-food systems, to make them sustainable, and for integrated water 
provision  and  management  in  the  Mediterranean  area,  to  make  those  systems  and  that  provision  and 
management more climate-resilient, efficient, cost-effective and environmentally and socially sustainable, 
and  to  contribute  to  solving  water  scarcity,  food  security,  nutrition,  health,  well-being  and  migration 
problems upstream. Therefore, proactive interventions that would increase soil health, climate resilience, 
enhance rainwater infiltration and water reuse, and prevent land degradation are paramount. The PRIMA 
area comprises the entire Mediterranean basin. It would be advisable to include a more holistic approach 
to addressing water scarcity and desertification  by adding fresh water to the water cycle  using water 
reuse and desalination. In combination with a change in agriculture and adding more stable organics to the 
soil  to  enhance  the  sponge  effect  for  water  and  nutrient  retention,  the  area  could  locally  improve  the 
resilience of the catchment area and be better prepared to combat climate change. Specific local actions 
can further support this holistic effort in improved wastewater treatment and WWTP effluent reuse.  

The  Strategic  Research  and  Innovation  Agenda  (SRIA)  of  European  Partnership  Water4All,  mentions 
explicitly  “sustainable  management  of  residues  from  desalination  plants  to  protect  land,  water  and  sea 
ecosystems altogether”, as well as “efficient citizen engagement in responses to perceptions of risk, and 
particularly health risk, associated with the use of water from unconventional sources”. The SRIA of the 
European Partnership Blue Economy mentions desalination as a potential interface with the Partnership 
Water4All. In contrast, no further reference to desalination is mentioned in the SRIA. To increase the level 
of granularity of the SRIA for Water4All, it might take the specific health risks of too much boron and too 

35 

 
little magnesium  into  account for  drinking  water  and  irrigation  water,  respectively.  It  would  require  an 
adaptation of the desalination process and, more precisely, an improvement of the relative selectivity of 
the membranes used in desalination. 

Mission Climate Adaptation could also address the holistic approach of the global freshwater scarcity and 
suggest  measures  for  improvement  at  the  catchment  level  to  enhance  resilience,  improve  ecosystem 
services,  biodiversity  and  a  more  sustainable  agricultural  production.  These  would  make  regions  less 
vulnerable to climate change and reduce the need for migration. These measures could improve the EU and 
the  Mediterranean,  Middle-East,  Sub-Saharan  regions,  or  even  the  Sahara  itself,  especially  when  the 
increased  freshwater  availability  coincides  with  regional  initiatives,  such  as  the  Great  Green  Wall. 
Noteworthy are local success stories, such as the interplanting of crops and trees, referred to as farmer-
managed  natural  regeneration,  or  FMNR,  developed  by  Burkinabe  farmer  Yacouba  Sawadogo  (Vizcarra, 
2019). Before Sawadogo’s successes, on-farm trees were primarily regarded as a nuisance in the Sahel. It is 
in part due to the belief that trees divert water away from crops. While in fact, trees in African drylands can 
promote  deep  soil  and  groundwater  recharge  in  a  future  climate  with  more  intense  rainfall  (Bargués‐
Tobella, et al., 2020). Yacouba’s impact on restoration in the Sahel has been more significant than that of 
all national and international experts taken together, which is why he was awarded a special reward (The 
Right Livelihood Foundation, 2018). 

Mission Climate Adaptation can form the bridge between European RDI efforts and global challenges and 
regional  needs.  European  and  African  catchment  areas  can  act  as  living  labs  where  improvements  are 
shown in practice. These can be wildly successful when also local knowledge is valued and included, as can 
be observed by the Sawadogo example.  

Mission  Healthy  Soil  and  Food  could  consider  the  health  aspects  of  desalinated  water,  boron  and 
magnesium. It could also improve the soil's organic fraction and the soil's sponge effect and fertility.  

Mission Starfish2030 could take the challenge to reduce the ecological impact of desalination. Especially 
brine  treatment  and  use  of chemicals  are  essential  to  improve  or  maintain  healthy  aquatic ecosystems. 
Mission Starfish could support innovation which can make valuable contributions in this domain. Also, with 
the European Green Deal in place and the North-Sea, especially Dogger Bank and coastal areas aiming for 
Green Hydrogen production, there will be a need to sound desalination plants ecologically. Doggerbank is 
a “Natura 2000” reserve. The cost of desalination compared to the overall cost of hydrogen production is 
negligible.  Therefore  improvements  in  the  environmental  performance  of  desalination  to  increase  the 
overall sustainability of green hydrogen can be developed and included. Specific membrane designs could 
significantly alter chemical use and brine treatment.  

36 

 
 
 
Table of Figures 

Figure 1: Investments in new desalination capacity and cumulative installed capacity. ........................ 8 

Figure 2 Desalination capacity indexed to reference year 2010 ............................................................. 9 

Figure 3: Membrane market estimates for new desalination capacity and 5-yearly replacement ........ 9 

Figure 4: Comparison of Global vs European Desalination Technology Landscape .............................. 11 

Figure 5: Location of technology vendors at the major hubs in Europe, North America, and Asian 
Pacific .................................................................................................................................................... 11 

Figure 6: Desalination Technology Patent Activity in 2020 ................................................................... 14 

Figure 7: How can water reuse and desalination contribute to freshwater availability ....................... 16 

Figure 8: Current capacity of reuse and desalination, and the perspective for 2025 ........................... 17 

Figure 9: Categorization of ERDF funding for desalination over the period 2014-2019 (in Mln €) ...... 20 

Figure 10 Regions with ERDF intervention related to desalination over the period 2014-2019 .......... 21 

Figure 11 Categorization of H2020’s €23.3 million funding for desalination over the period 2014-2019
 ............................................................................................................................................................... 22 

Figure 12: regions with H2020 funding related to desalination innovation over the period 2014-2019
 ............................................................................................................................................................... 23 

Figure 13: Development of seawater desalination specific energy consumption and costs, indicating 
the limited room for optimization ......................................................................................................... 24 

Figure 14: Desalination placed in a holistic perspective of restoring watersheds ................................ 26 

Figure 15: Three case studies of desalination, each with specific characteristics ................................ 27 

Figure 16: Annual regional water demand, water supply  in million m3/year; Map of Murcia region 
with indicative locations of desalination plants .................................................................................... 28 

Figure 17: Regional employment (%), and the level of knowledge and specialisation per sector ....... 31 

Figure 18: Southern Water’s area of operation for water supply and wastewater treatment with 
locations of planned desalination plants in Fawley and Shoreham ...................................................... 32 

Figure 19: Map of Gotland (Sweden) showing locations of desalination plants ................................... 34 

Table of Tables 

Table 1: Desalination Technology Classifications .................................................................................. 10 

Table 2: European Emerging Technology Company Profiles ................................................................. 13 

Table 3: Investments in desalination capacity co-funded by ERDF ....................................................... 20 

Table 4: Available water sources and limitations to increased usage .................................................. 29 

37 

 
 
 
 
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39 

 
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40 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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doi:10.2760/058360 

ISBN 978-92-76-40319-7