Visiting Lanzarote as part of a cruise, I came across an interesting story about water supply for drinking. Lanzarote is in the rain shadow of the western Canary Islands so water is a bit of a challenge. Being a volcanic island it should be good for geothermal but in reality they use that simply as a tourist show of a mini-geyser.
For drinking water they have been using thermal desal, in conjunction with power generation, you can see the equipment and the oil tanks in the photo below.
But I was told they have recently moved on to RO (I understand in the sheds in the photo above) powered by wind turbines, two on that treatment site and the others on the hills above the main town.
These being the only wind turbines allowed to function on the island (protecting views for tourism? I don't know) …… I trust someone worked through all the economics of the alternative options before coming up with that … but it makes sense from what I have learnt along the way.
And finally in foreground of the view of the new massive wind turbines it is possible to see the original windmills - this I guess for irrigation rather than drinking water.
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