New Water, New Energy – Solar Power for a Proposed Desalination Plant and Existing Water Production and Distribution Infrastructure in Water-Scarce Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

Keywords: desalination, water security, solar power, energy-water nexus
Abstract Type: Virtual Poster Abstract

Abstract

Ciudad Juárez, Mexico is located in an arid, transboundary region across the Rio
Grande from El Paso, Texas. Ciudad Juárez faces water security challenges because it
depends heavily on groundwater from two aquifers, the Hueco Bolson and Mesilla Bolson,
that it shares with El Paso. As both cities have grown, freshwater supplies in both aquifers
have declined, and brackish water has taken the place of freshwater. In response to this
situation, El Paso established a brackish water reverse osmosis desalination plant to procure
new drinking water supplies for its residents. Ciudad Juárez, by contrast, continues to rely
exclusively on fresh groundwater from the two aquifers. Due to the uncertain future of
freshwater supplies in the Hueco Bolson and Mesilla Bolson, this poster evaluates
whether a similar desalination plant could supply Ciudad Juárez with water in the future
and if so, to what extent would the proposed plant improve the city’s water security.
However, this poster shows that a desalination plant will noticeably alter the amount of energy Ciudad Juárez’s water utility would use to produce drinking water. But Ciudad Juárez enjoys abundant sunshine yearround, which provides an opportune environment for solar energy to power a desalination
plant. The results show that a grid-connected solar array with batteries could reduce the
city water utility’s grid energy consumption for the proposed desalination plant sizably,
particularly if the proposed plant’s production capacity equals either the current maximum
capacity of the El Paso plant or the future maximum capacity of the same plant.