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Installed in Caldera, in the heart of the Atacama Desert, the large Chilean desalination plant uses reverse osmosis and renewable energy to transform seawater into a strategic source of urban and agricultural supply.
In the region considered one of the driest on the planet, Chile has come to rely on a large desalination plant to ensure the daily supply of drinking water to the population.
Located in the municipality of Caldera, in the Atacama region, the plant is capable of turning around 1.6 million liters of seawater per hour into fresh water, becoming a central piece of the country’s strategy to face water scarcity in an area without sufficient natural aquifers for self-supply.
Capacity of the Atacama Desalination Plant
The facility, known as Atacama Desalination Plant or Planta Desaladora de Atacama, was designed with an initial capacity of 38,880 cubic meters per day, equivalent to approximately 38.9 million liters daily, and engineered to operate in modules until reaching a maximum flow rate of 1,200 liters per second of drinking water.
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This final capacity corresponds to around 103,600 cubic meters per day.
According to the company responsible for the project and official documents, the plant was sized to ensure the quality water supply for over 210,000 inhabitants in four communes: Copiapó, Caldera, Chañaral, and Tierra Amarilla, serving approximately 70% of the population of the Atacama region.
Public Project and International Participation
The venture is conducted by the state-owned Econssa Chile S.A., responsible for sanitation services in various regions of the country, and was financed with public resources, being presented as the first large desalination plant aimed at human consumption fully funded by the State.
The work was awarded in 2017 to a consortium formed by the Spanish GS Inima and the Chilean construction company Claro Vicuña Valenzuela, which assumed engineering, equipment supply, construction, and the first years of operation and maintenance.
Extreme Water Stress in Northern Chile
The choice for a large-scale desalination plant was directly linked to the situation of chronic water stress in northern Chile.
The Atacama Desert is classified by climatic studies as the driest non-polar desert in the world, with annual rainfall averages of just a few millimeters and reports of areas that can remain for years without any measurable precipitation.
In some parts of the region, the average rainfall is less than 2 millimeters per year, making it unfeasible to rely on surface reservoirs.
The scenario is exacerbated by the fact that the country ranks in international surveys among nations with the highest pressure on water resources, due to the combination of growing demand and limited supply.
Before the plant began operation, the Atacama region relied mainly on the Copiapó River aquifer, which suffered significant depletion after decades of exploitation for human consumption, agriculture, and mining.
Chilean authorities began to describe the area as permanently threatened by the risk of running out of water in the event of extreme weather events.
With the plant’s completion, the government itself began to treat the project as a “state work”, priority in the public policy for water security in the northern region of the country.
Reverse Osmosis Technology in the Atacama Desert
From a technical standpoint, the plant uses seawater reverse osmosis technology.
The process begins with the intake, using underwater structures and pipelines that carry the raw water from the ocean to the land facilities.
Next, the liquid undergoes physical and chemical pre-treatment steps to remove suspended solids, sand, organic matter, and marine organisms that could damage the membranes.
Only then is the water pressurized by high-power pumps and sent to reverse osmosis modules, where it passes through semipermeable membranes that retain salts and most contaminants, separating the flow into desalinated water and concentrated brine.
The produced drinking water undergoes final pH corrections, remineralization, and disinfection, before being pumped through dozens of kilometers of pipelines to the urban centers of the region.
The network associated with the plant includes pumping stations and intermediate reservoirs that allow it to overcome altitude changes and ensure adequate pressure in supplying the served cities.
The brine returns to the sea through submarine outfalls designed to dilute the saline concentrate and minimize local salinity changes.
Energy Efficiency and Use of Renewable Energy
One of the highlights for companies and sector entities is the energy efficiency of the Atacama Desalination Plant.
Technical information released by GS Inima and partners indicates that the plant operates with guaranteed electrical consumption of less than 2.8 kWh per cubic meter of water produced, a level considered among the lowest in the world for facilities of this size.
During performance tests, even lower average values were recorded, close to 2.6 kWh per cubic meter, a result associated with the use of energy recovery equipment in high-pressure waste and the optimized design of the process.
Another differentiating factor is the integration with renewable energy sources.
Public documents related to the project indicate that the plant’s electrical supply is guaranteed by an arrangement of wind and solar generation, officially characterized as 100% renewable.
This configuration reduces the carbon footprint associated with desalination, a frequent criticism of similar projects in other parts of the world, where the energy for high-pressure pumps typically comes primarily from fossil fuel thermal power plants.
International Recognition and Regional Impact
The set of technological solutions and the direct impact on the region’s supply earned international recognition for the project.
In 2022, the Atacama desalination plant was announced as the winner of the “Desalination Plant of the Year” at the Global Water Awards, an award organized by entities linked to the water and sanitation sector.
The plant had also previously been recognized as one of the most important engineering projects in the country by Chilean technical associations, due to the investment volume, social role, and solutions adopted to reduce environmental impacts in the coastal zone.
Internally, the Chilean government highlights the plant’s effect on local water security.
During the official inauguration, authorities emphasized that the region, previously at permanent risk of supply shortages, now has the supply of drinking water assured for decades, based on the contracted capacity and the modular design that allows for future expansions.
Institutional reports also mention the generation of more than 500 direct jobs during the construction phase and the invested amount, around 100 million dollars, as significant factors in the regional economy.
Es una buena solución si se gestiona correctamente la salmuera que produce. En muchos lugares la salmuera de rechazo se tira al mar y arrasa la vida marina
Para onde vão os 2/3 da água captada?
Devolver salmuera al mar acarreara problemas con la flora y fauna marina, cuando se den cuenta será tarde como siempre.
La cantidad es muy pequeña no llega a perjudicar