TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Solar salt water conversion to fresh water.

https://life.gomcgill.com/kenyas-fi...zjx3jLS4u4XmJ2TfAHJuuSxTSz0nLg5kSuaq4_-U

Think GEBE would welcome this???

Interesting.

Sounds like an almost perfect solution for places close to the sea with lots of sun...like SXM!!

Except the sun doesn't pay kickbacks. It'll never fly in SXM. Wind and Solar would have been here by now. I'm sure $ from every barrel of oil and bag of bag of desal chemicals ends up in political pockets, not to mention no show jobs.

There is probably more than we are privy to to make this work.

Hmmm, read the article, do a little math and then then think about it. It says it produces 19,800 gallons per day, and that is enough for 25,000 people. That is .79 gallons per person per day. That is barely enough just to drink and maybe cook a little.
Every time you flush the toilet, that's 1.6 gallons down the drain. These systems are great for little costal villages looking for only drinking water, but not practical for commercial water production. Desalination on that scale takes way more power than solar panels can provide.

Imagine the mountain sides west of Cole Bay and others covered with solar panels. a substantial amount of energy would be produced. Add in windmills on the ridges and that would produce a significant amount of renewable energy.

In my opinion, windmills would be a source of much dismay if installed on SXM. SXM does not have any vast open spaces where they could be installed and not be very visible. They are quite intrusive visually. My mom lives in Indiana, in the midst of a windmill farm, and they look like a bunch of eerie walking giants. That is her description of them, not mine. She says she sometimes dreams about them coming to life and walking around. Not a good visual, for an economy based on tourism. Solar cells, on the other hand, placed on a mountain side, are MUCH less visually intrusive and would be a good idea, in my opinion.

lol! Walking giants...I completely get the visual!

Windmills may be completely destroyed in a tropical storm or hurricane. They could not even keep a flag on the flag pole at the hill. Went through several (in good weather!) and have finally given up. That pole just sits there empty now.

There are probably a dozen windmills within a couple miles of my mom's house. The farmers where the windmills are located on their individual properties are getting paid a fair amount of money. The people who live next door don't get anything except the weird vibes from the creepy walking giants.

Agreed, regarding hurricanes. Didn't think of that. It's a shame that flagpole sits empty. One of Minister Emmanuel's 'great ideas'... Not.

Yes. There are maximum wind speeds they can withstand. Far under a hurricane let alone a tropical storm.