The U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot plan will announce a funding announcement (FOA) for research on solar thermal seawater desalination technology around September 25. The funds allocated will be used to support the research and development and initial demonstration of this technology.

According to the introduction, the biggest advantage of this solar thermal seawater desalination technology is low cost and low energy consumption. The use of this technology not only does not require the use of high-value electricity, but can also achieve a substantial reduction in the cost of seawater desalination by reducing the cost of solar heat collection and storage and increasing the efficiency of thermal seawater desalination, even if it is comparable to the currently widely used reverse osmosis system. The ratio is not inferior.

In addition, thermal seawater desalination technology can perfectly treat all kinds of seawater with different salinity. It is an ideal water treatment solution for desalinating raw water with high salinity and achieving zero liquid discharge.

It is reported that the US Department of Energy’s focus on this research mainly focuses on the following points:

1. Low-cost solar heat storage technology: This innovative concept is expected to reduce the cost of solar heat collection, heat transmission and storage, even lower than the cost of conventional heat energy.

2. Innovative thermal seawater desalination technology: This novel, research and development stage thermal seawater desalination technology may achieve a perfect integration with light-heat technology.

3. Competitive CSP seawater desalination technology: This comprehensive solution of integrating CSP and seawater desalination is expected to achieve lower seawater desalination costs.

4. CSP seawater desalination technology analysis model: Through this research, a systematic CSP seawater desalination analysis tool can be established, such as a system model, which can be used for economic evaluation and further optimization of CSP seawater desalination technology.