India Desalination Market To Triple In Size
By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje
India can expect to see massive growth in its desalination industry over the new few years, according to a new report.
"The desalination business in India may grow threefold to $1.9 billion within five years, spurred by industrial demand, urban sprawl and freshwater scarcity concerns," Bloomberg reported, citing a research report.
The report by TechSci Research showed that India will gobble up a large portion of the global desalination market.
"The south Asian nation may account for 14 percent of the global desalination market by 2019 as it builds on the 183 desalination plants currently operating across India," Bloomberg reported, citing TechSci.
Karan Chechi, Research Director with TechSci Research, explained some of the forces behind this boom.
“The market, largely dominated by multinational companies, has witnessed considerable contribution from domestic desalination plant installers in the last few years. Multinational companies operating in the India desalination plant market are largely from Spain, France, Israel, Singapore and the US. Desalination plant installers in India are developing low cost solutions as per the off-taker’s requirement, which is expected to result in reverse innovation in the desalination plant installation technology,” he said.
Sun-powered desalination is seen as a big hope for India, according to researchers.
The idea is appealing since around 60 percent of the country sits above saltwater, and large swaths of the country lack an electric grid to run reverse-osmosis desalination processes, according to the MIT New Office.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), "the most important users of desalinated water are in the Middle East, (mainly Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain), which uses about 70% of worldwide capacity; and in North Africa (mainly Libya and Algeria), which uses about 6% of worldwide capacity."
The U.S. is also a leading user of desalination technology, but the high price of this process has hindered wider adoption.
Check out Water Online's Desalination Solution Center.