SEA GODS

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* Poseidon jumped another hurdle in its seemingly endless race to get its 189,000m3/d desalination plant at Carlsbad past the regulators.

The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board let the project pass. It was supposed to be the final regulatory hurdle, but it isn’t. The Coastal Commission has one remaining concern which could hold things up – it is not satisfied with the company’s calculations on the water velocities near the intake. That will take at least two months to clear up. And then there are the lawsuits...

* The company says the money is all lined up and ready for financial close. Perhaps everything else seems easy after the permitting marathon. The most disturbing thing for Poseidon watchers is the departure of Nikolay Voutchkov, the chief technology officer, at the end of April. He had been with Poseidon for 12 years, and winning the battle for Carlsbad has dominated his entire life for most of that time. It is as if Marshal Zhukov had walked away from Stalingrad on the point of victory.

* Acciona, which is “analysing its legal situation” after being turfed out of the contract to build the Carlsbad desal plant for Poseidon, had some good news from Australia. The Adelaide project which it secured earlier this year will be doubled up to 280,000m3/d from the start (it was originally going to be built in two stages – see Desal Tracker p35).

* Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity and Water has put together a four-stage programme to expand desalination capacity at Az-Zour North. As ever, the ministry is taking a ‘safety-first’ approach. The first two stages of 464,000m3/d each will use the tried and tested multi-stage f lash technology that has always been the mainstay of desalination in Kuwait. Multi-effect distillation will only be allowed for the 227,000m3/d third stage (but only after large-scale MED has been proved elsewhere in the Gulf). Finally, there will be a 114,000m3/d reverse osmosis plant (see story p13).

* There is no sign of any interest in private finance in Kuwait’s plans. This may be a good thing, as developers and bankers are still trying to understand the implications of the credit crunch on their business (see story p8). The consensus seems to be that it is a “correction”, rather than a fundamental challenge to the model.