Seawater reverse osmosis powered from renewable energy sources -: hybrid wind/photovoltaic/grid power supply for small-scale desalination in Libya

GECOL and a consulting consortium of experts from ZSW, German Wind Energy Institute (DEWI) and Lahmeyer International (LI) are preparing the installation of an experimental plant for seawater reverse osmosis desalination powered from renewable energy sources (SWRO+RES) at Libya's coast of the Mediterranean sea. The nominal production of the plant will be 300 m(3)/d for the supply of a village with potable water. Both wind energy conversion (WEC) and photovoltaic power generation (PV) will be integrated into a grid connected power supply for a reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant with power recovery. While the expected nominal power load for the operation of the RO desalination system is 70 kW (net power after recovery), the solar PV system is designed for 50 kW(peak), and the WEC for 200 kW nominal output. The design aims at a reduction of the annual non-renewable energy consumption to about 40%. The economic analysis of the integrated renewable energy systems predicts levelized water cost for the integration of Grid+WEC with RO of 1.8euros/m(3) and for Grid+PV with RO of 1.9euros/m(3) compared to 1.3euros/m(3) for the fossil only operation of the plant from the grid.