A combination of increased water usage and lower rainfall in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 has caused a noticeable drop in city and town water supply levels. In response to this, State governments around Australia have begun building Desalination plants that purify seawater using reverse osmosis

Reverse osmosis

Reverse osmosis is a membrane technical filtration method that removes many types of large molecules and ions from solutions by applying pressure to the solution when it is on one side of a selective membrane. The result is that the solute is retained on the pressurized side of the membrane and...

 technology. Many of these plants have included in their overall cost the building of renewable energy sources such as wind farms.

Australia's first working desalination plant was the Kwinana plant in Perth, and was completed in November 2006. A second plant on the Gold Coast began operations in February 2009.

The Kurnell Desalination Plant

Kurnell Desalination Plant

The Sydney Desalination Plant is a drinking water supply project operated by Veolia Water Australia Pty Ltd on behalf of Sydney Water, Sydney's State-owned water supply corporation. It is located in the Kurnell industrial estate area, in Sydney's southern suburbs. The desalination plant itself was...

 in Sydney was opened on the 28th January 2010.

List of desalination plants

In use

Plant	Capacity (per day)	Upgradable Capacity (per day)	Location	Completion
Gold Coast Desalination Plant	125 megalitres	(167 upgradable)	South East Queensland	2009
Perth Seawater Desalination Plant	130 megalitres		Kwinana, Western Australia	2006
Kurnell Desalination Plant Kurnell Desalination Plant The Sydney Desalination Plant is a drinking water supply project operated by Veolia Water Australia Pty Ltd on behalf of Sydney Water, Sydney's State-owned water supply corporation. It is located in the Kurnell industrial estate area, in Sydney's southern suburbs. The desalination plant itself was...	250 megalitres	(500 upgradable)	New South Wales	2010

In progress

Plant	Capacity (per day)	Upgradable Capacity (per day)	Location	Completion
Southern Seawater Desalination Plant	100 megalitres		Binningup, Western Australia	2012 (50 megalitres in September 2011)http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-02/desalination-plant-opens-in-bunbury/2868424
Wonthaggi Desalination Plant	410 megalitres	(550 upgradable)	Victoria	2011-2012
Port Stanvac Desalination Plant Port Stanvac Desalination Plant The Port Stanvac Desalination plant is a SWRO desalination plant currently under construction at Lonsdale, South Australia which will provide the city of Adelaide with a significant amount of drinking water...	270 megalitres		South Australia	Late 2012 (135 megalitres in April 2011)http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/01/3081307.htm

Planned

Plant	Capacity (per day)	Upgradable Capacity (per day)	Location	Notes
Point Paterson Desalination Plant Point Paterson Desalination Plant The Point Paterson Desalination Plant is a planned municipal-scale solar-powered desalination plant with land-based brine disposal just outside Port Augusta, South Australia. The Point Paterson Project utilises a salt flat owned by a salt company but which has not been in use for solar salt...	15 megalitres	(123 upgradable)	South Australia	not yet approved