Water

Water is a recurring theme in the wiki’s macro-investment and technology corpus — framed as a foundational resource whose scarcity and abundance shape entire civilizations and economies.

Yishan Wong (former Reddit CEO, founder of Terraformation) made an extended argument in May 2021 that water is the next big “real atoms” investment macro-trend. The key threshold: in 2018, the per-kWh cost of solar energy dropped below the per-kWh marginal cost of fossil fuels (per Lazard’s 2019 report). That crossover makes solar-powered reverse-osmosis Desalination economically viable at scale for the first time.

The core argument: most of humanity lives within 100 miles of a coastline, on a planet 75% covered in water — but ocean water is saltwater. The only other source of freshwater that doesn’t come from mountains is desalinated seawater. With solar-powered desalination, cities can produce fresh water near where it is consumed, reducing dependence on the mountain snowpack and aquifer systems that are depleting globally. Wong built a 100% solar-powered desalination facility to demonstrate the model.

Michael Burry (The Big Short) made a related call as early as 2010: water would become critical, and water scarcity would make water “political and litigious,” with transportation impractical.

For the historical water-infrastructure context — the vast Western water projects and the politics behind them — see Cadillac Desert.

Where this appears

• If You Want to Know… (tweet) — Yishan’s 39-post thread on solar desalination as the next mega-trend in real-atoms investing.