Have an Idea for Clean and Sustainable Energy/Water/Food?  Costs Matter

Here’s a discussion I’m having with a fellow who proposes this idea for desalination, and is looking for help getting it off the ground:

Reader:  Where I need help is to strategize about a) how to get a water district to accept a fixed price contract for water with no capital outlay,

 and b) how to line up the appropriate legal and financial structure(s) so as to attract investors (both tax equity and debt) to fund these ships. They are ‘ballpark’ $100m each – and are able to repay an 8% debt load in 15 years (quicker when tax benefits are considered). Shall we plan a time to talk thru this?

Maybe I should understand the basic economics first.  In the US, retail rates for drinking water average about $2/1000 gallons, but treatment accounts for only about 15 percent of that; the rest is costs for equipment, distribution systems, and labor for operation and maintenance of the system. So that means the current cost of delivering what you’re offering is about $0.30/1000 gallons. What’s the overall levelized cost of delivering 1000 gallons of water from your system, amortized over its expected life?