I imagine this would be a great use case for solar - desalination plants are mostly needed in hot desert places where the sun is strong. I imagine you could use energy at off peak times, since clean water can easily be stored.
Exactly. This what Israel has been doing, as I understand it. We don’t need to use desalination for everything, but for places like California which have water shortages, it could certainly help.
The desert is actually not great for solar, it's too hot, will decrease performance of the panels