[arjie]

Pretty clever idea. Sadly uneconomical when compared to desalination because I love the idea of iceberg calf hunting. Ripe for a novel Moby Dick - The target is already a large white object. Call me Icemael.

Got a bit of a Cold War era pykrete like project feeling.

[b3lvedere]

Given enough solar/wind/battery power i do wonder if a desalination plant could run pretty cheaply. A quick chat with ChatGPT tells me it should be feasible. Roughly investing around 1 billion dollars and around 40 million per year for keeping it run producing around 100.000 m³ per year. Cost price of the water would be around $0.20 per m³. Could run for more than 25 years.

[peterbecich]

They are not popular. See the canceled Poseidon facility in Huntington Beach.

[b3lvedere]

I did a little research. Although also not that popular, the one in Carlsbad in San Diego did get built. Matter of timing and costs it seems. Also didn’t help that Poseidon wanted big profit guarantees.

[augment_me]

How bout a really big iceberg chunk, like massive. There has to be a trade-off at some size.

Also nice reference and funny in probably most ways to think about it thanks for a laugh :D