Poseidon Water, the Huntington Beach-based seawater desalination facility, through the process of a memorandum of understanding, joined the Irvine-led Orange County Power Authority on Tuesday, Feb. 22.

With this new partnership, Poseidon becomes the first desalination plant in the nation to commit to using 100% renewable energy in its day-to-day operations. This commitment also solidifies Poseidon’s status as the first desalination plant to do so in the western hemisphere. 

The Memorandum of Understanding between Huntington Beach and Irvine comes just weeks after the city of Irvine committed to adopting 100% renewable energy from the Orange County Power Authority.

OCPA Chairman Mike Carroll, who also serves on the Irvine City Council, said this unification will put the Poseidon facility on the cutting edge, both in terms of operations and functionality.

“We’re proud to enter into this MOU with Poseidon Water today and are pleased to see they are dedicated to ensuring the water produced by this state-of-the-art desalination plant will be powered by solar, wind and other renewable sources,” Carroll said.

Huntington Beach Mayor Pro Tem Mike Posey, who also serves on the OCPA board, said this is just one example to illustrate the city’s efforts to implement 100% renewable energy wherever possible.

“My fellow Huntington Beach City Council members and I recently selected 100% renewable energy, through OCPA, as our default plan for customers – taking bold steps to address climate change,” Posey said. “With this project located in Huntington Beach, I am happy to see that Poseidon Water has also committed to work toward making their project even more sustainable by working with OCPA in an effort to power the desalination plant entirely with renewable energy.”

In terms of operations, the Poseidon Water project is slated to produce approximately 50 million gallons of fresh water, which is converted from ocean water to fresh water using reverse osmosis.

In 2010, Poseidon Water made a commitment to carbon neutrality, through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Voluntary Energy Minimization & Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan. 

With this in mind, Poseidon Water Vice President Scott Maloni explained that adding the aspect of using 100% renewable energy will only strengthen the core mission.  

“We set a precedent in 2010 by making our proposed Huntington Beach desalination project 100% carbon neutral through our Voluntary Energy Minimization & Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan,” Maloni explained. “However, it has always been our goal to have the project powered entirely by renewable energy if it were feasible to do so and with.”

In addition to its carbon neutrality and use of 100% renewable energy, Poseidon will also be retrofitting intake pipes with wedge wire screens, that will help protect the Bolsa Chica Wetlands. 

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