A MARKET POISED TO EXPLODE.
Today’s water market is driven by two forces:
> The increasing demand for water
> The rising costs of meeting that demand with traditional methods
As the global population explodes, the demand for water is skyrocketing. At the same time, the water supply is shrinking, due to depleted aquifers, pollution, and climate change. The world is facing a water crisis. As the cost of traditional water extraction methods increases, desalination costs are declining, dramatically increasing the size of its market.
A GIANT SURGE
From 1995 to 2007, desalination grew 600%. By 2010, 14,450 desalination plants were operating in 100 countries. By 2015, the industry as a whole will have doubled in size, to $143 billion.
Reverse osmosis will see the largest growth, reaching 39 and a half billion by 2020. In fact, 59% of the current new-build capacity uses membrane technology, including Reverse Osmosis.
With Reverse Osmosis costs declining almost 60% in just 10 years (1994 – 2004), by 2020, desalination costs are forecast to equal freshwater extraction costs.
FAST GROWING MARKETS
The fastest-growing market is forecasted to be the Mediterranean basin Algeria, Libya, and Israel have growth expectations of 300% each.
China and India may follow. Both have already entered the large-scale seawater desalination market, and both have large populations in water-stressed regions.
Another market with vast potential is the Caribbean which is already facing a water crisis because of a prolonged drought. The extremely salty waters of the Caribbean Sea are difficult to desalinate—but Triton has desalinated the complex waters surrounding the Canary Islands for over 20 years. So we can offer a working solution in demanding conditions.
The U.S. is also poised for a breakthrough, with plans to add 2 million cubic meters of desalination in the next few years. In fact, the U.S. is forecast to be second only to Saudi Arabia in the scale of implementation through 2016, reaching $3.3 billion a year in expenditures.