Solar Thermal Desalination Now Underway in Water-hungry California

A modest solar thermal desalination alternative now quietly undergoing permitting inland would produce 5 million gallons of water, about one tenth of that of Carlsbad, but at a much lower cost of just $30 million, using a solar distillation process. Thermal desalination is an ideal application for concentrated solar power (CSP), which turns sunlight to thermal energy. Unlike most CSP, which is used to ultimately drive a steam turbine to generate electricity, in solar desalination the steam is used directly in a solar still to simply evaporate out the waste.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/06/solar-thermal-desalination-now-underway-in-water-hungry-cali-fornia.html