Desalinization Near the Dead Sea

In the past, two different projects to bring seawater into the Dead Sea have been proposed.

The Red Dead project is a well-known proposal dating back 50 years. There was a signed agreement between Israel and Jordan to make this a reality, but conflict intervened and the project never has come to fruition. In this proposal, a system of canals and reservoirs and dams word to link the Dead Sea with the red Sea. the dramatic level difference between the red Sea and the Dead Sea would create both electric power and head pressure to desalinate water boot for Israel and specifically Amman Jordan.

There was also a proposal to bring Mediterranean Sea water into the Dead Sea in about 1974. In this case the water would come from the Mediterranean, and there would be no need for international cooperation to create this project.

Both of these proposals involved some power production as well as some desalinization by reverse osmosis. Either of these proposals would renew the water level in the Dead Sea by bringing in fresh seawater from either the Mediterranean or the red Sea.

There is another way to look at this problem, with intermediate sea water storage in reservoirs positioned appropriately above the Dead Sea, one could create beautiful sea water reservoirs that would contain viable sea life at several levels going down to the Dead Sea.

Between these reservoirs there could be either reverse osmosis desalinization plants, or hydroelectric power generation stations. The existence of several reservoirs going down towards the Dead Sea would enable dispatchable hydroelectric power to balance grid demand, enabling a higher penetration of non dispatchable renewable energy.

This scenario would create dispatchable hydroelectric power, desalinated water, and would replace the missing water in the Dead Sea. The total flow could be controlled to bring the Dead Sea back to its historical pre technology levels.

The intermediate reservoirs may or may not be practical. Obviously those reservoirs would occupy valuable surface area within Israel, and would probably make the groundwater between the reservoir and the Dead Sea saline, so they might not be worthwhile.

If that is the case then the water could still drop from station to station without being stored anywhere, but in that case, the hydroelectric energy output would have only limited dispatchability.

If there is a place that a large reservoir could be constructed somewhere on the inside of the mountains separating the Dead Sea from the Mediterranean, this sea water reservoir could be much closer to the Dead Sea, making it more feasible to create a dispatchable hydroelectric power resource between that reservoir and the Dead Sea. This greatly increases its value compared to a steady hydroelectric power output as was originally envisioned.

Having multiple reservoirs separated by the proper drops to enable direct utilization of the pressurized sea water in a reverse osmosis plant or through turbines designed for that pressure would give a great deal of flexibility.