Is desalination just a quick fix? What happens to the excess salt? How much does it cost and could it be run on solar power? We asked for your questions on desalination and selected the most frequently asked and most intriguing ones. Here are the answers from some of Australia’s top experts.

 What happens to the excess salt produced by desalination? Is it useful or just a waste product? If it is a waste product is it dumped out to sea where it can potentially harm marine life?

How much power is needed to produce a kilolitre of desalinated water and what is the cost to produce a kilolitre?

Is it possible to run a desalination plant using solar energy - and if so, is it true that the amount of fossil fuels necessary to manufacture the solar cells in the first place is almost as great as the stream of energy services the cells will provide over their useful life?

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