This plant is part of a bigger chain. So while yes, on its own it seems waste of effort, as part of the entire chain it’s a reasonable step to be more environmentally friendly and recover some energy in the process.

A local plant desalinates water, resulting in fresh water and a brine solution that has much higher concentration of salt in it than regular sea water.

Dumping the brine solution on its own would kill most plant and animal life around the dump site due to large saltwater concentration, so an alternative method must be found to dispose of the brine.

Waste water from other processes can be mixed with the brine to bring it more in line with seawater salinity, making it safe to reintroduce to the ocean without severe ecological impact. This waste water is deemed to difficult or intensive to purify and treat to bring it back up clean water standards, and I’m assuming tested or filtered so as not to introduce hazardous chemicals that could damage the reverse osmosis membranes as well as sea life.

Because there is way to mix the waste water and brine through membranes that can be used to generate electricity, this process is utilized to recover some of the energy expended in purifing the original batch of seawater resulting in the brine.

It’s not a perfect process but it is a means of getting some use out a waste product, similar to burning garbage or rotting food rather than just dumping it into a pit and letting it rot and release methane.

Its miles better than traditional desalination - requiring so much energy that burning fossil fuels is unavoidable. And brine is chucked back in the ocean. Basically an environmental catastrophe.

If you think of it on the scale of one community - providing potable water, dealing with treated wastewater AND getting a surplus of energy while treating the brine it is actually pretty clever.

If it makes you feel better you could probably slap some solar panels on those flat roofs too.

You should call up Japan and let them know how wrong they are.