In February 2020, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported that NEOM, the planned development zone in north-west Saudi Arabia, had agreed with British company Solar Water Plc on pilot desalination plants using a solar dome. Construction of the first dome was to start that month and finish before the close of 2020. NEOM put the water cost at about US$0.34 per m³. The process, developed at Cranfield University, uses concentrated solar power to heat and evaporate seawater inside a dome of glass and steel.
The project showed Saudi interest in solar thermal desalination as a low-carbon alternative to reverse osmosis, although the cost figure came from the developer at pilot stage.