According to state media reports, building the Bohai Bay plant will cost 7 billion yuan ($1.1 billion); the pipeline connecting it to Beijing, an additional 10 billion yuan. That doesn’t include the high electricity costs the plant will incur once it’s up and running. The California-based Pacific Institute, an environmental group, estimates it takes 12,000 to 18,000 kilowatt hours to desalinate a million gallons of seawater. Pumping groundwater to the surface requires less than 4,000 kilowatt hours per million gallons.