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Latin America & Caribbean / Critical infrastructure

Solar Desalination Microgrid

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations2
System facts21
Sources reviewed6
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

Elemental Water Makers commissioned this solar-driven seawater reverse-osmosis plant on Great Camanoe in the British Virgin Islands in July 2015 for a private retreat. Unlike the other solar-desalination record, this is a distinct, site-specific installation. A 12 kWp PV array supports roughly 12,500 L/day (about 3,300 US gal/day) of potable-water production. The system avoids electrochemical batteries by pumping seawater to an elevated buffer tank when solar power is available; gravity then maintains feed pressure, while a mechanical pressure intensifier recovers pressure from the brine to achieve the roughly 50 bar required by RO. The owner describes remote monitoring and a hurricane-rated solar structure. A current vendor case-study page continues to showcase the plant, but its embedded numeric widgets render as zeros and should not be treated as operating data. No recent site-specific availability, production, water-quality, or maintenance report was found, so operation after the dated case material remains unverified.

Research status
Commissioned and operating in July 2015; retained as an Elemental Water Makers case study, but current operation and cumulative production have not been independently or recently verified.
Historical classification
Commercial
Reported capacity
12 kW
Coordinates
18.42069, -64.63997
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Solar Desalination Microgrid?

2 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

Elemental Water Makers

Developer, system integrator, commissioning party, and remote-monitoring provider [3][4][6]

Organization

Private retreat owner, Great Camanoe

Host and water off-taker; customer identity was not disclosed [3][5]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Solar
12 [1]
Location
Great Camanoe, British Virgin Islands, north of Tortola [5][3]
Commissioning
Reported up and running on July 18, 2015 [4]
Solar capacity
12 kWp photovoltaic array [5]
Water production
Approximately 12,500 L/day, or more than 3,300 US gallons/day [3][4][5]
Battery storage
None; solar energy is effectively time-shifted by pumping seawater to an elevated buffer and by storing product water [4][5]
RO operating pressure
Approximately 50 bar; pressure recovery reduced the required terrain elevation from roughly 500 m without recovery to about 90 m in the site's design analysis [5]
Reported economics
TU Delft's project account cited estimated production cost of €1–3/m³ versus local water cost of €6–7/m³; this is an early project estimate, not a current audited tariff [5]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

Photovoltaics

Model not publicly disclosed

12 kWp solar array on a hurricane-rated mounting structure; module and inverter models were not disclosed [3][5]

02

Seawater intake

Model not publicly disclosed

Solar-powered intake pump lifts seawater to an elevated buffer tank; the owner says it is the only electrically driven pump required by the gravity configuration [3][4]

03

Elevated feed storage

Model not publicly disclosed

Saltwater buffer supplies steady hydrostatic pressure, allowing desalination to continue beyond instantaneous solar production without batteries [4][5]

04

Energy-recovery device

Model not publicly disclosed

Piston-based mechanical pressure intensifier transfers pressure from concentrated brine to incoming seawater; manufacturer/model not disclosed [4][5]

05

Reverse osmosis

Model not publicly disclosed

Seawater RO train producing about 12.5 m³/day; membrane and pressure-vessel models were not published [3][4]

06

Monitoring

Model not publicly disclosed

Remote monitoring was included for the isolated private-retreat installation [3][4]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • Storage

    The Elemental Water Makers desalination microgrid pumps water up a hill during solar hours with 100% solar PV energy and stores the potential energy in a tank. [1]

  • Generation

    Solar PV [1]

  • Energy architecture

    PV power is used when available to lift seawater. Gravity and recovered brine pressure then perform much of the RO pressurization, substituting hydraulic and water storage for a battery bank. [4][5]

  • System classification

    This is a standalone renewable water-production system rather than a general-purpose electric microgrid serving a community load. Its resilience metric is potable-water availability, not electrical islanding capacity. [3][6]

  • Brine handling

    The vendor describes energy recovery and mixing/dilution strategies that reduce discharge salinity, but site-specific discharge monitoring results were not published. [6]

  • Data-quality caution

    The current project webpage's live-performance fields display zero values, apparently because an embedded widget is inactive. The independently stated 12,500 L/day design capacity is the defensible figure; zeros are not evidence that the plant has shut down. [3][4]

  • Current-status gap

    The commissioning and owner case study establish that the plant existed and operated, but no dated post-2021 site report confirms membrane replacements, hurricane damage, uptime, or current output. [3][4]

Provenance

6 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2021-04-20

  2. [2]
    Working With Nature to Reach 100% Renewable Energy with Elemental Water Makers

    microgridmedia.com · Archived source · captured 2021-04-20

  3. [3]
    Solar Desalination in the British Virgin Islands

    Elemental Water Makers · Primary source

  4. [4]
  5. [5]
    Sun Plus Sea Equals Drinking Water

    TU Delft Delta · Secondary research

  6. [6]
    Sustainable Desalination Brochure

    Elemental Water Makers · Primary source

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