The National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI), which is led by the Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was awarded a five-year, $100-million Energy-Water Desalination Hub by DOE to address water security issues in the United States.

The Hub is intended to focus on early-stage research and development for energy-efficient and cost-competitive desalination technologies and for treating nontraditional water sources for various end uses. Funding is contingent on congressional appropriations.

NAWI was formed in 2017 to support the Energy Department's goal of establishing the desalination hub.The research alliance is based at Berkeley Lab and includes Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the National Energy Technology Laboratory and 19 founding university partners and 10 founding industry partners.

Its goal is to advance a portfolio of novel technologies that will secure a circular water economy in which 90% of nontraditional water sources — such as seawater, brackish water and produced waters — can be cost-competitive with existing water sources within 10 years.

NAWI was formed in 2017 to support the Energy Department's goal of establishing the desalination hub. It consists of a core research consortium, which includes the three national labs along with the founding academic and industry partners, and the NAWI Alliance, which includes more than 100 U.S. organizations and whose membership is open.

The hub will be supported by the DOE's Advanced Manufacturing Office.