[marcus_holmes]

Western Australia is very flat (especially the bit near all the people). And pretty dry (though the bit near all the people is not so dry). There's nowhere to pump water to, and not much water to pump.

However, there is a huge demand for fresh water, and lots of available seawater. You could just soak up excess power by using it for desalination, which is power-hungry.

But that doesn't benefit the mining industry, so no-one in WA govt will think of it.

[mlonkibjuyhv]

I'm curious, what's normal to do with all the waste from desalination?

[perilunar]

The concentrated salt water is pumped back into the sea. Doesn't seem to be too damaging to the environment. See:

https://theconversation.com/desal-plants-might-do-less-damag...