Technical and Economic Comparison between Solar and Wind Energy Supplying Desalination System

Abstract

Decreasing the freshwater prices is considered a big concern within the desalination industry. The goal of this study is to determine the best reverse osmosis desalination system powered by photovoltaic or wind turbine in Ras-Gharib City, Egypt. The system is planned to produce 0.5 m3//hr of potable water. The techno-economic analysis is applied using SAM 2018.11.11 r4 simulation package. The results show that electricity bill using solar or wind energy is less than that in case of using convention energy systems. Based on simulation findings, the proposed photovoltaic system capacity is capable of generating water at a levelized energy cost of 3.95 cent$/kWh, compared to 9.5 cent$/kWh for wind system. The cost of one meter cubic of purified water using solar photovoltaic system is 0.08 $ while the cost is 0.19 $ using wind turbine system. Here, solar photovoltaic desalination system is the best choice system for this case study.

Keywords

• solar energy
• wind energy
• reverse osmosis
• desalination
• optimization