IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jresou/v4y2015i3p476-489d51831.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Energy-Water Nexus: Spatially-Resolved Analysis of the Potential for Desalinating Brackish Groundwater by Use of Solar Energy

Author

Listed:
  • Jill B. Kjellsson

    (Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, 204 E. Dean Keeton St. Stop C2200, Austin, TX 78712, USA)

  • Michael E. Webber

    (Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, 204 E. Dean Keeton St. Stop C2200, Austin, TX 78712, USA)

Abstract

This research looks at coupling desalination with renewable energy sources to create a high-value product (treated water) from two low value resources (brackish groundwater and intermittent solar energy). Desalination of brackish groundwater is already being considered as a potential new water supply in Texas. This research uses Texas as a testbed for spatially-resolved analysis techniques while considering depth to brackish groundwater, water quality, and solar radiation across Texas to determine the locations with the best potential for integrating solar energy with brackish groundwater desalination. The framework presented herein can be useful for policymakers, regional planners, and project developers as they consider where to site desalination facilities coupled with solar photovoltaics. Results suggest that the northwestern region of Texas—with abundant sunshine and groundwater at relatively shallow depths and low salinity in areas with freshwater scarcity—has the highest potential for solar powered desalination. The range in capacity for solar photovoltaic powered reverse osmosis desalination was found to be 1.56 × 10 —6 to 2.93 × 10 —5 cubic meters of water per second per square meter of solar panel (m3/s/m2).

Suggested Citation

  • Jill B. Kjellsson & Michael E. Webber, 2015. "The Energy-Water Nexus: Spatially-Resolved Analysis of the Potential for Desalinating Brackish Groundwater by Use of Solar Energy," Resources, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-14, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jresou:v:4:y:2015:i:3:p:476-489:d:51831
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/4/3/476/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/4/3/476/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Al-Karaghouli, Ali & Renne, David & Kazmerski, Lawrence L., 2010. "Technical and economic assessment of photovoltaic-driven desalination systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 323-328.
    2. Mary E. Clayton & Ashlynn S. Stillwell & Michael E. Webber, 2014. "Implementation of Brackish Groundwater Desalination Using Wind-Generated Electricity: A Case Study of the Energy-Water Nexus in Texas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-21, February.
    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. David D. J. Antia, 2016. "ZVI (Fe 0 ) Desalination: Stability of Product Water," Resources, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-47, March.
    2. 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.
    3. John Luczaj, 2016. "Groundwater Quantity and Quality," Resources, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-4, February.
    4. 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. Skroufouta, S. & Baltas, E., 2021. "Investigation of hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) for covering energy and water needs on the Island of Karpathos in Aegean Sea," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 141-150.
    2. A.H.T. Shyam Kularathna & Sayaka Suda & Ken Takagi & Shigeru Tabeta, 2019. "Evaluation of Co-Existence Options of Marine Renewable Energy Projects in Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-26, May.
    3. Bertsiou, M. & Feloni, E. & Karpouzos, D. & Baltas, E., 2018. "Water management and electricity output of a Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES) in Fournoi Island in Aegean Sea," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 790-798.
    4. Pandey, A.K. & Tyagi, V.V. & Selvaraj, Jeyraj A/L & Rahim, N.A. & Tyagi, S.K., 2016. "Recent advances in solar photovoltaic systems for emerging trends and advanced applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 859-884.
    5. Ahmad, Naseer & Sheikh, Anwar K. & Gandhidasan, P. & Elshafie, Moustafa, 2015. "Modeling, simulation and performance evaluation of a community scale PVRO water desalination system operated by fixed and tracking PV panels: A case study for Dhahran city, Saudi Arabia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 433-447.
    6. 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.
    7. Lee, Sangkeum & Cho, Hong-Yeon & Har, Dongsoo, 2018. "Operation optimization with jointly controlled modules powered by hybrid energy source: A case study of desalination," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 3070-3080.
    8. Li, Changsheng & Wang, Haiyu & Miao, Hong & Ye, Bin, 2017. "The economic and social performance of integrated photovoltaic and agricultural greenhouses systems: Case study in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 204-212.
    9. Eltawil, Mohamed A. & Alamri, Ali M. & Azam, Mostafa M., 2022. "Design a novel air to water pressure amplifier powered by PV system for reverse osmosis desalination," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    10. Pérez-Alonso, J. & Pérez-García, M. & Pasamontes-Romera, M. & Callejón-Ferre, A.J., 2012. "Performance analysis and neural modelling of a greenhouse integrated photovoltaic system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(7), pages 4675-4685.
    11. Ali, Muhammad Tauha & Fath, Hassan E.S. & Armstrong, Peter R., 2011. "A comprehensive techno-economical review of indirect solar desalination," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 4187-4199.
    12. Nagasawa, Kazunori & Davidson, F. Todd & Lloyd, Alan C. & Webber, Michael E., 2019. "Impacts of renewable hydrogen production from wind energy in electricity markets on potential hydrogen demand for light-duty vehicles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 1001-1016.
    13. Farhad Yazdandoost & Seyyed Ali Yazdani, 2019. "A New Integrated Portfolio Based Water-Energy-Environment Nexus in Wetland Catchments," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 33(9), pages 2991-3009, July.
    14. Manju, S. & Sagar, Netramani, 2017. "Renewable energy integrated desalination: A sustainable solution to overcome future fresh-water scarcity in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 594-609.
    15. Li, Chennan & Goswami, Yogi & Stefanakos, Elias, 2013. "Solar assisted sea water desalination: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 136-163.
    16. Schäfer, Andrea I. & Hughes, Gordon & Richards, Bryce S., 2014. "Renewable energy powered membrane technology: A leapfrog approach to rural water treatment in developing countries?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 542-556.
    17. Guo, Chenglong & Zhao, Jiaxu & Zhang, Wenting & Miao, Endong & Xie, Yuhang, 2020. "Constructing 3D optical absorption holes by stacking macroporous membrane for highly efficient solar steam generation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 944-953.
    18. Hussein M. Maghrabie & Abdul Ghani Olabi & Ahmed Rezk & Ali Radwan & Abdul Hai Alami & Mohammad Ali Abdelkareem, 2023. "Energy Storage for Water Desalination Systems Based on Renewable Energy Resources," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-34, March.
    19. Deetjen, Thomas A. & Rhodes, Joshua D. & Webber, Michael E., 2017. "The impacts of wind and solar on grid flexibility requirements in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 637-654.
    20. Chen, W.L. & Xie, G., 2022. "Performance of multi-stage tubular solar still operating under vacuum," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 201(P2), pages 34-46.

    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:3:p:476-489:d:51831. 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.