Co-ordination Action for Autonomous Desalination Units ... - ADU-RES

2. DESALINATION RES COUPLING-State of the Art
Over the last two decades in particular, numerous desalination systems utilizing
renewable energy have been constructed. Most of these plants have been installed
as research or demonstration projects and were consequently of small capacity.
Several of these plants do not exist most likely the majority are pilot units and after
the end of the project there is no interest or budget to continue their operation. The
“post-project” period in an economical point of view is a very important issue and
should be considered at the beginning of a demonstration or a real plant installation.
However, the lessons learned have hopefully been passed on and are reflected in
the plants currently being built and tested [E. Tzen, R. Morris, 2003]
Figure 2 presents the installations of the several desalination processes in
conjunction with renewables, regarding small-scale systems up to 50 m 3 /day. In this
figure, a percentage of 32% for PV-RO, a 19% for Wind-RO, a 6% for PV-ED, a 6%
also for Hybrid-RO, a 10% for Solar MSF and a 16% for Solar MED as well as a 7%
for other technologies combinations, is shown. As it is obvious from the figure, the
most popular combination is PV with Reverse Osmosis followed by wind.
Hybrid Systems
5%
Wind RO
19%
PV-ED
6% PV-RO
32%
Solar MSF
10%
Solar MED
16%
Wind MVC
5%
WP2 ADU-RES 7
Other
7%
Solar MSF
Solar MED
Wind MVC
Other
PV-RO
PV-ED
Hybrid
Systems
Wind RO
Fig 2. Desalination processes used in conjunction with RES