Do folks here understand the expense and energy use associated with desalination plants? [View all]

[CreekDog]

And do folks think that such plants should be built to supply water for agricultural irrigation in California and the Southwest?

If anyone does, do they have any idea how much that would cost?

If anyone does, do they have any idea how much energy such plants would require?

There hasn't been a great deal of need for desalination for domestic uses even during our severe droughts, because domestic uses are small in comparison to agricultural uses (and many agricultural uses demand less water than many current agricultural uses, we can still be a major agricultural area and use less water by growing more appropriately).

The idea that it's a good idea to just build dozens of desalination plants in California seems based on the assumption that:

1) California has no better option or source of water for domestic purposes than desalination
2) It seems unaware of how much water is used for agriculture and that replacing uncollected water (since rain/snow hasn't fallen) through desalination doesn't recognize where such water would be used.
3) Using desalinated water for agriculture would not only be prohibitively expensive based on treatment methods, it would also be energy intensive (as we're trying to reduce energy consumption that's fueling climate change). Beyond that, it would be energy intensive to transport water from the coasts to agricultural areas.

The knee jerk reaction of "we need to build desalination plants, right now, all over California" just doesn't seem to be based on knowledge of California's water situation or uses, California's geography, or the nature of the desalination process.