IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jresou/v4y2015i2p227-276d48780.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Energy-Water Nexus: An Analysis and Comparison of Various Configurations Integrating Desalination with Renewable Power

Author

Listed:
  • Gary M. Gold

    (The University of Texas at Austin, 204 E. Dean Keeton Street, Stop C2200, Austin, TX 78712, USA)

  • Michael E. Webber

    (The University of Texas at Austin, 204 E. Dean Keeton Street, Stop C2200, Austin, TX 78712, USA)

Abstract

This investigation studies desalination powered by wind and solar energy, including a study of a configuration using PVT solar panels. First, a water treatment was developed to estimate the power requirement for brackish groundwater reverse-osmosis (BWRO) desalination. Next, an energy model was designed to (1) size a wind farm based on this power requirement and (2) size a solar farm to preheat water before reverse osmosis treatment. Finally, an integrated model was developed that combines results from the water treatment and energy models. The integrated model optimizes performances of the proposed facility to maximize daily operational profits. Results indicate that integrated facility can reduce grid-purchased electricity costs by 88% during summer months and 89% during winter when compared to a stand-alone desalination plant. Additionally, the model suggests that the integrated configuration can generate $574 during summer and $252 during winter from sales of wind- and solar-generated electricity to supplement revenue from water production. These results indicate that an integrated facility combining desalination, wind power, and solar power can potentially reduce reliance on grid-purchased electricity and advance the use of renewable power.

Suggested Citation

  • Gary M. Gold & Michael E. Webber, 2015. "The Energy-Water Nexus: An Analysis and Comparison of Various Configurations Integrating Desalination with Renewable Power," Resources, MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-50, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jresou:v:4:y:2015:i:2:p:227-276:d:48780
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/4/2/227/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/4/2/227/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gude, Veera Gnaneswar, 2015. "Energy storage for desalination processes powered by renewable energy and waste heat sources," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 877-898.
    2. Chow, T.T., 2010. "A review on photovoltaic/thermal hybrid solar technology," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 365-379, February.
    3. Skoplaki, E. & Palyvos, J.A., 2009. "Operating temperature of photovoltaic modules: A survey of pertinent correlations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 23-29.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Catherine I. Birney & Michael C. Jones & Michael E. Webber, 2019. "A Spatially Resolved Thermodynamic Assessment of Geothermal Powered Multi-Effect Brackish Water Distillation in Texas," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-20, April.
    2. John Luczaj, 2016. "Groundwater Quantity and Quality," Resources, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-4, February.
    3. Ram Avtar & Saurabh Tripathi & Ashwani Kumar Aggarwal & Pankaj Kumar, 2019. "Population–Urbanization–Energy Nexus: A Review," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-21, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pang, Wei & Cui, Yanan & Zhang, Qian & Wilson, Gregory.J. & Yan, Hui, 2020. "A comparative analysis on performances of flat plate photovoltaic/thermal collectors in view of operating media, structural designs, and climate conditions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    2. Buonomano, A. & Calise, F. & Palombo, A., 2013. "Solar heating and cooling systems by CPVT and ET solar collectors: A novel transient simulation model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 588-606.
    3. Anand, B. & Shankar, R. & Murugavelh, S. & Rivera, W. & Midhun Prasad, K. & Nagarajan, R., 2021. "A review on solar photovoltaic thermal integrated desalination technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    4. Sharaf, Omar Z. & Orhan, Mehmet F., 2015. "Concentrated photovoltaic thermal (CPVT) solar collector systems: Part I – Fundamentals, design considerations and current technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1500-1565.
    5. Xiaojiao Yang & Jinzhi Zhou & Yanping Yuan, 2019. "Energy Performance of an Encapsulated Phase Change Material PV/T System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-16, October.
    6. Bai, Attila & Popp, József & Balogh, Péter & Gabnai, Zoltán & Pályi, Béla & Farkas, István & Pintér, Gábor & Zsiborács, Henrik, 2016. "Technical and economic effects of cooling of monocrystalline photovoltaic modules under Hungarian conditions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1086-1099.
    7. Al-Addous, Mohammad & Dalala, Zakariya & Class, Christina B. & Alawneh, Firas & Al-Taani, Hussein, 2017. "Performance analysis of off-grid PV systems in the Jordan Valley," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 930-941.
    8. Bigorajski, Jarosław & Chwieduk, Dorota, 2019. "Analysis of a micro photovoltaic/thermal – PV/T system operation in moderate climate," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 127-136.
    9. Kim, Jungbin & Park, Kiho & Yang, Dae Ryook & Hong, Seungkwan, 2019. "A comprehensive review of energy consumption of seawater reverse osmosis desalination plants," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    10. Ahmad Hasan & Sarah Josephine McCormack & Ming Jun Huang & Brian Norton, 2014. "Energy and Cost Saving of a Photovoltaic-Phase Change Materials (PV-PCM) System through Temperature Regulation and Performance Enhancement of Photovoltaics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-14, March.
    11. Ehsan F Abbas & Tahseen A Tahseen & N A Madlol & Hulya S Sulaiman & Hussein A Z Al-bonsrulah & Vijayanandh Raja & Mohammed Al-Bahrani, 2022. "High performance evaluation of a PV/T hybrid system connected with a thermal store unit holding paraffin wax [The effect of adding paraffin wax to PVT collector on its efficiency: a practical study," International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies, Oxford University Press, vol. 17, pages 1158-1165.
    12. Cui, Tengfei & Xuan, Yimin & Yin, Ershuai & Li, Qiang & Li, Dianhong, 2017. "Experimental investigation on potential of a concentrated photovoltaic-thermoelectric system with phase change materials," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 94-102.
    13. Marco Noro & Simone Mancin & Roger Riehl, 2021. "Energy and Economic Sustainability of a Trigeneration Solar System Using Radiative Cooling in Mediterranean Climate," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-18, October.
    14. Zhao, Tingting & Jiang, Weitao & Niu, Dong & Liu, Hongzhong & Chen, Bangdao & Shi, Yongsheng & Yin, Lei & Lu, Bingheng, 2017. "Flexible pyroelectric device for scavenging thermal energy from chemical process and as self-powered temperature monitor," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 754-760.
    15. Selcuk Bulat & Erdal Büyükbicakci & Mustafa Erkovan, 2024. "Efficiency Enhancement in Photovoltaic–Thermoelectric Hybrid Systems through Cooling Strategies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-12, January.
    16. Zhang, Wei & Zhu, Rui & Liu, Bin & Ramakrishna, Seeram, 2012. "High-performance hybrid solar cells employing metal-free organic dye modified TiO2 as photoelectrode," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 305-308.
    17. Calise, Francesco & Cipollina, Andrea & Dentice d’Accadia, Massimo & Piacentino, Antonio, 2014. "A novel renewable polygeneration system for a small Mediterranean volcanic island for the combined production of energy and water: Dynamic simulation and economic assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 675-693.
    18. Marina Moreira & Ivan Felipe Silva Santos & Lilian Ferreira Freitas & Flávio Ferreira Freitas & Regina Mambeli Barros & Geraldo Lúcio Tiago Filho, 2022. "Energy and economic analysis for a desalination plant powered by municipal solid waste incineration and natural gas in Brazil," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 1799-1826, February.
    19. Mojiri, Ahmad & Stanley, Cameron & Rodriguez-Sanchez, David & Everett, Vernie & Blakers, Andrew & Rosengarten, Gary, 2016. "A spectral-splitting PV–thermal volumetric solar receiver," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 63-71.
    20. Shao, Nina & Ma, Liangdong & Zhang, Jili, 2020. "Experimental investigation on the performance of direct-expansion roof-PV/T heat pump system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jresou:v:4:y:2015:i:2:p:227-276:d:48780. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.