Accelerating solar-powered desalination deployment through transferable learning

Abstract Solar desalination offers a promising solution to the global water shortage, yet it is underutilized compared to traditional fossil fuel-driven methods. Past solar desalination research prioritized efficiency enhancement and cost reduction, overlooking critical knowledge gaps and specific needs for facilitating the technology’s adoption. Here we apply lessons from the successful development of photovoltaics and lithium-ion batteries to enhance the solar desalination impact’s on water scarcity. We analyze four decades of research, noting consistent cost decreases in key solar desalination technologies, alongside variable efficiency trends. Investigating cost reduction strategies in photovoltaics and batteries reveals opportunities to accelerate solar desalination uptake. Our findings reveal cost-saving potential through economies-of-scale and learning-by-doing particularly in system-level innovations, which could yield benefits already seen in the photovoltaics, batteries and some membrane materials but not yet in solar desalination systems. We also propose adopting standardized metrics to monitor consistent progress across different technologies but distinct learning curves tailored to application scenarios, promoting targeted advancements for widespread adoption.