Like it or not, we’re all irremediably interlinked. However remote and therefore inconsequential a region may appear to be, drought there can severely impact everyone else. Case in point, Chile is in the midst of a 15-year megadrought, and there’s no end in sight. As of 2021, over half of its population lived in areas afflicted by severe water scarcity, so much so that according to the Chilean Ministry of Social Development, approximately 8% did not have access to drinking water.
Chile is the world’s top producer of copper (24% of global copper production) and the second-largest producer of lithium, essential for the global shift to a green energy economy. Water is crucial in mining, used to process ores, suppress dust, and cool equipment. As it happens, Chile’s great mines are located in the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth. The drought has exacerbated competing demands from communities, agriculture and mining, in order of priority. As a result, the mining sector has turned to desalination, a seemingly obvious solution due to the close proximity of the Pacific Ocean. However, it entails high energy costs (typically between $0.50 and $2 per cubic meter) supplied by the national grid. In addition, there are environmental consequences, including the discharge of brine (highly concentrated saltwater) which can affect marine life and contain chemicals used in the desalination process.
Presently some mining companies are using desalinized water for 30% of their needs, and that is expected to rise to 50% by 2030. The topography, featuring the towering Andes in close proximity to the Pacific, entails additional challenges. Transporting seawater from coastal desalination plants to inland high-altitude mines requires long pipelines, often at elevations in excess of 2,000m. In addition, declining ore grades require more water to process the same amount of metal.
The Inverse
Pumping water up a steep slope requires a lot of energy. For example, the Edmonston Plant in California requires 14 gigantic pumps with a combined draw of over 7,460 megawatts to lift the water 587 meters uphill to a series of tunnels over the Tehachapi Mountains.
In Chile’s case that expenditure is in addition to the energy consumed by the desalination process itself. Instead of coastline desalination plants, why not build plants to produce hydrogen from electrolysis using solar energy exclusively? Sunshine is certainly abundant in the Atacama, and the Pacific Ocean is an inexhaustible source of water (and therefore, hydrogen). Better yet, no one can claim any rights to them. Then, hydrogen (the lightest element in the Periodic Table) would be pumped up to power plants built on suitable mountaintops. They would burn the hydrogen to simultaneously generate (not consume) electricity and produce steam. The latter would be condensed and stored; it would then be piped down to cascading mountainside hydro turbines to yield still more electricity (there are specific cases when a series of cascading generators are preferable to a one single large turbine). After that the water would support the mining operations. The brine and other byproducts of the electrolysis process would stay on the shore where the powerful Humboldt current would dilute it naturally. As shown, this system features gravity as an additional force to recover most if not all the energy used in the electrolysis operation. Since there is no theoretical limit as to how much hydrogen, electricity and water could be produced by this system, the national grid would no longer have to support the mining sector; instead, the grid would receive any surplus electricity.
Elsewhere
This system could work in places as diverse as Mexico, Spain, the Greek islands, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and mainland U.S., if it ever decides to wean itself from fossil fuels and nuclear fission. As for the European Union, China, India, Russia, and/or everyone else lacking optimal sites where to clone the plan, they could always invest in joint ventures with others.
Requirements
The technologies for this system already exist, and it is even possible for private capital to finance it entirely without additional taxes or confiscations. The only thing lacking is political will.