Greenhouse implications of the proposed Sydney desalination plant

The Carr government has announced that it will build a desalination plant to help resolve the water supply shortage, unless there is enough rain in the next few months to raise storage levels to a 'safe' level. Desalination is an energy intensive process. Because electricity in eastern Australia is mostly generated by coal-fired power stations the energy used in the proposed plant will result in high levels of greenhouse gas emissions. This paper contains estimates of the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions of the proposal.