New Desalination Plant inaugurated last week

The plant, which will supply about 20% of Israel's annual domestic consumption, will supply water at the cost of US$ 0.57/m³
 
Israel's president, Shimon Peres, inaugurated last week the 275,000 m³/d Hadera desalination plant, the largest reverse-osmosis plant in the world at present
 
The plant will supply about 20% of Israel's annual domestic consumption.
 
The facility on the Mediterranean Coast at Hadera, located between Haifa and Tel Aviv, is the largest of its kind in the world and the third largest in Israel. Two more plants are on the drawing boards, with all five of them projected to provide two-thirdsof the nation’s water.
 
The plant will supply water at the cost of US$ 0.57/m³ and will demand 450 GW of electricity each year. The Hadera plant uses reverse osmosis technology, which means the sea water does not have to be heated, as is done in larger plants in the world that are less environmentally friendly. The entire process of desalinating the water takes 35 minutes from the time it enters pipelines in the sea.
 
The mammoth plant covers more than 18 acres and actually is two facilities that can operate independently from each other. Together, they can provide 127 cubic million liters, or 33 million gallons a year.The investment in the construction project, which totalled approximately NIS 1.6 billion (US$ 463 million) was funded by a consortium of international banks, including the European Investment Bank; Calyon, the French investment bank; and Esperito Santo (BES), the Portuguese investment bank.