[sandworm101]

Residential water is not the issue, not even commercial water. Desalination still doesn't work for the vast majority of users: agriculture. 0.02$/gallon is far to expensive when farmers need acre-feet of water (300,000 gallons). Delivery of such quantities from the ocean to inland farms is also impractical, and cannot conceivably be made so. That's why they draw from rivers and aquifers.

[ImHereToVote]

I think evaporating large areas of salt water could increase the local air moisture level substantially. That with the passive desalination could make water much cheaper in coastal areas.

[seltzered_]

It's also worth asking how desalination can be used in say afforestation or ecosystem restoration, to improve evapotranspiration of water over a landscape where appropriate.

I recall the CEO of terraformation (Yishan Wong) talking about using desal with brackish wells : https://www.terraformation.com/blog/solar-powered-desalinati...

[ac29]

In the US, thermal power generation is actually a bigger user of fresh water than agriculture: https://labs.waterdata.usgs.gov/visualizations/water-use-15/...

This is 2015 data. Not sure if the rapid rise in solar and wind has changed this, though it might over time.

[AtlasBarfed]

300,000 gallons, .01/6.4 gals

so .01 * 300,000/6.4 is... $500.

How often do they need the water?

[myfavoritetings]

That's 500 for one acre so multiply by 300-400 for a typical farm and it cuts into already fairly small margins on farming

[sandworm101]

Corn will need about 24" of water each crop. So, if there is no or little natural rain, two acre-feet of water per acre. There is no concievable method of transporting such amounts inland. It would require energy enough to reverse the flow of rivers.