Abstract
Desalination is a well-established technology used all over the world to mitigate freshwater scarcity. Wind-powered reverse osmosis plants are one of the most promising alternatives for renewable energy desalination, particularly for coastal areas and islands. Wind energy can satisfy the high energy consumption of desalination while reducing costs and CO2 emissions. However, the mismatch between the intermittent availability of the wind resource and the desalination’s power demand makes the integration between the two technologies critical. This paper presents a review of wind-powered desalination systems, focusing on the existing topologies and technological advances. An overview of the advantages and disadvantages are analysed based on the theoretical and experimental cases available in the scientific literature. The goal of this work is to show the current status of wind-powered desalination and to present the technical challenges that need to be overcome in order to ensure a sustainable freshwater source.
Highlights
Since conventional wind turbines transform the mechanical energy extracted by the rotor into electricity, it is a straightforward approach to directly use that electricity in different ways: it can be directly fed to the desalination plant, injected into the electrical grid, or further transformed and stored in different manners
We found that wind power desalination plants that are connected to the electrical grid represent the most feasible and viable solution for reducing the water production costs and the environmental impact of the desalination processes
The recent developments and dissemination of wind energy together with the increased efficiency of desalination technologies have led to a decrease in the cost of wind turbines and desalination plants
Summary
The lack of sufficient freshwater resources is already affecting one fourth of the global population [1]. Abundant and represents 97% of Earth’s water resources, and the progress and development of desalination technologies have made it a feasible and promising solution to the freshwater scarcity problem. In 2017, wind power accounted for 18% (1134 TWh) of the world’s electricity production from renewable energy sources, and for 30% of European production [4]. Both the installed wind capacity and its energy production are currently enlarging by 9.50% and 18.8%, respectively [5]. Wind-driven desalination is a promising combination for sustainable and long-term freshwater production
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