Optimal sizing of seawater desalination systems using wind-solar hybrid renewable energy sources

PIETRASANTA, ARIANA; M.C MUSSATI; SERGIO MUSSATI,; AGUIRRE P.; SCHMIDHALTER, IGNACIO; MOROSUK, TATIANA

Renewable Energy

Elsevier Ltd

Lugar: AMSTERDAM; Año: 2023 vol. 215

This paper reports the optimal integration of a hybrid renewable energy system consisting of wind turbines and/or photovoltaics with membrane-based seawater desalination units to meet freshwater demand. To convenientlyaccommodate renewable energy generation towards a cost-effective process design, the possibility of variablefreshwater storage is considered. The minimization of the total cost is the objective function. The real data aboutrenewable resources were tacking from NASA. No electrical grid connection is considered as well. The implementedmodel has the potential to assess to what extent variable freshwater demands can be covered by windand solar energy under given meteorological data. As the study cases, two cities in the South of Argentina wereselected: Rio Grande and Camarones. Optimal solutions obtained using solar and/or wind systems are comparedin detail for both cities. Hybrid solar/wind systems obtain freshwater costs of 0.60 $/m3 to 0.66 $/m3 in bothcities.