tral if it uses energy from renewable sources; it is also a model of circularity,” agrees Fernando Cortabitarte. In fact, the compa-ny’s reverse osmosis process generates 6.5 times less CO2 emis-sions than conventional desalination solutions, making it possible to produce 1,000 liters of drinkable water at a cost equivalent to that of a five-liter bottle in the supermarket, says the expert. “To desalinate that amount, we use the same energy as the air condi-tioning a house uses for one hour.” In addition, the energy efficiency and the cost curve tend to decrease progressively: “Desalination energy costs have improved and will continue to fall; we are now consuming less than three kilowatt hours per cubic meter. It is always better to pay that price than not have the resource because the most expensive water is the one that we don’t have,” he adds. In EXTREME condiTions Our experience in investing in, innovating and operat-ing infrastructure in extreme climatic environments —from the Atacama Desert and the Middle East to arid Spain— has provid-ed us with valuable insights into meeting large-scale needs and dealing with very different types of water, allowing us to optimize our service at any latitude. In fact, Cortabitarte points out that it is the company that has installed the most reverse osmosis desalination capacity world-wide between 2011 and 2021 “to provide one of the solutions with the greatest potential, although not the only one when it comes to generating new water.” In other words, it adds a growing amount of this basic resource to that small 2% of fresh water in its natural state, which makes it possible to preserve it, at a time when it is more necessary than ever for life. TURNING WASTE INTO A REEF Left, plant at Beckton on the River Thames estuary; it has received awards for the most sustainable project and for the best desalination project. Right, a desalination plant in Torrevieja (Alicante), providing a solution to the lack of water for agricultural irrigation and human consumption in a highly populated area. The company’s treatment of brine —the by-product of desalination— has managed to reduce its impact through long-distance discharges away from the coastline in con-trolled environments. But a new process promises to re-duce that footprint to almost zero by taking advantage of strategic minerals and metals such as magnesium, boron, lithium, scandium, indium, vanadium, gallium, rubidium and molybdenum, among others. Its efforts in this process are aligned with European projects such as Sea4Value, whose objective is “to convert sea water desalination plants into raw material mines” using crystallization, separation and concentration technologies. “The recovery of metals from wastewater and brine could increase the stocks of these materials, although more in-formation and guidance are needed on which metals to pri-oritize, or on how technologically and economically feasible the extraction processes are,” Yale University acknowl-edges. Researchers prioritize the scarcest and most cru-cial metals used in basic industries such as renewables, for example lithium, cobalt, gallium and vanadium. This process introduces a new circular element into the cycle: the desali-nation plants are powered by renewables —which lowers their costs— and at the end of the cycle they produce met-als to be integrated into those same renewable facilities.