The award was presented during the closing ceremony of the XIV AEDyR International Congress, in recognition of the desalination plant model developed by ITC, capable of reducing energy consumption to below 2 kWh/m³.
The recognition highlights ITC’s role in the technological advancement of the water sector, promoting more efficient and sustainable solutions in desalination and water reuse to address water stress.
The Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias (ITC), a center under the Ministry of Universities, Science, and Innovation of the Government of the Canary Islands, led by Migdalia Machín, has received an Honorable Mention in the Innovation category at the AEDyR Awards 2025 for its DESALRO 2.0® desalination plant design, a project marking an international milestone in energy efficiency applied to water desalination.
The award was collected last Thursday by Baltasar Peñate, head of the ITC’s Water R&D department, during the closing gala of the 14th International Congress of the Spanish Association for Desalination and Reuse (AEDyR), a specialized forum that brought together over 400 industry professionals at the Adán Martín Auditorium in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, from June 24 to 26.
Developed entirely in the Canary Islands, the DESALRO 2.0® project has been recognized for its innovative approach and its capacity to significantly reduce the energy consumption of the desalination process, offering a high-impact, industrial-scale-replicable solution that decisively contributes to more sustainable water resource management.
DESALRO 2.0®: Unprecedented energy efficiency
The DESALRO 2.0® system takes shape in an experimental reverse osmosis desalination plant located at ITC’s facilities in Pozo Izquierdo (Gran Canaria). Designed at industrial scale (2,500 m³/day), the plant aims to achieve a specific energy consumption below 1.86 kWh/m³, representing an improvement of over 20% compared to conventional plant consumption. In an island context where 70% of drinking water comes from desalination, energy optimization is critical from both environmental and economic perspectives.
The plant incorporates advanced technologies such as high-efficiency positive displacement pumps, next-generation energy recovery devices, frequency-driven systems, and hybrid membrane integration. Its modular and compact design (a containerized Plug&Play solution) enhances replicability and scalability. Built entirely by a Canary Islands joint venture made up of CANARAGUA and ELMASA, the plant is a model of exportable island technology.
DESALRO 2.0® was praised by the AEDyR Awards jury as a high-impact innovation model, due to its market readiness, industrial replicability, economic benefits, and contribution to water sustainability in the archipelago.
The results achieved enable the validation of new technical configurations for future installations of up to 5,000 m³/day, and are already being leveraged by local and international operators.
The project was funded by the REACT-EU European funds, under the Canary Islands 2014-2020 ERDF Operational Programme. It also strengthens the research capacity of the DESAL+ LIVING LAB platform, a public-private R&D infrastructure dedicated to the demonstration of advanced desalination and water reuse solutions in the Canary Islands.
Currently, the DESALRO 2.0® design is in the certification phase to apply for a Guinness World Record for the lowest energy consumption of a desalination plant, a record currently held by a facility in Saudi Arabia. At the same time, the technical team is working on further optimizations to break the 1.75 kWh/m³ barrier, placing the Canary Islands at the forefront of desalination efficiency.
Recognition of leadership in desalination R&D
Alongside the Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias, the AEDyR Awards 2025 also recognized other leading entities in the sector. The Excellence Award went to COX Water, the Innovation Award to SURPHASE, and the Sustainability Award to SACYR. In the field of Communication, the award went to ACADES, while GS INIMA was recognized as Spanish Entity 2023/2025. Honorable Mentions were also awarded to AQUALIA (in Excellence and Sustainability), ACCIONA Agua (in Communication), and BALTEN (as Spanish Entity 2023/2025).
The recognition granted by AEDyR reinforces the leadership of the Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias and the DESAL+ Living Lab ecosystem in the field of efficient water resource treatment and management. The DESALRO 2.0® initiative represents a high-value-added solution that contributes to advancing toward a more resilient and sustainable water supply model in island and arid regions. With this new award, ITC consolidates its role as an international benchmark in sustainable desalination, exporting technology, knowledge, and solutions developed in the Canary Islands that are already being applied beyond its borders.
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