Israel’s IDE Technologies confirmed on 15 December 2009 that Sorek Desalination Ltd (SDL), a joint venture with Hutchison Water, had won the Sorek (previously Soreq) desalination plant tender.
The Sorek seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) facility will be constructed under the BOT (Build Operate Transfer) model, similar to the model used successfully by IDE and its partners in delivering Israel’s Ashkelon and Hadera desalination facilities.
The Sorek SWRO plant will reach a desalination capacity of 150 million m³ of seawater per year, which will make it Israel’s largest SWRO desalination facility and one of the largest of its kind in the world. The plant will use energy generated on-site in a private energy generation facility to be built by Delek Group, which owns half of IDE.
Commenting on the news, Avshalom Felber, CEO of IDE Technologies, stated, “We are very proud of our Israeli successes, including the Ashkelon facility (currently the largest operating SWRO facility worldwide), which has been operating successfully for over four years, and the equally large Hadera plant, which we expect to begin full streaming in the next few weeks.”