Is Renewable Energy-Powered Desalination a Viable Solution for Water Stressed Regions? A Case Study in Algarve, Portugal

Gil Azinheira,Raquel Segurado,Mário Costa

doi:10.3390/en12244651

Abstract

With a severe seasonal concentration of precipitation and unevenly distributed water resources, the water supply in Portugal is under stress, and the problem is expected to increase with climate change. Water desalination is increasingly becoming the preferred solution to fight water scarcity, but, because it is energy-intensive, the underlying costs and sustainability concerns over the power sources chosen remain a challenge to its implementation. This study aims to assess if the introduction of renewable energy sources (RES) powered desalination in mainland Portugal is viable and can contribute to guarantee water security. The Portuguese Algarve region is a viable case study to be considered because it is particularly water stressed and subject to highly varying demographics depending on the season. Taking the region’s freshwater demand, hourly RES production and power demand, a cost analysis was performed in order to obtain the levelized cost of water (LCOW) for two different strategies (centralized and decentralized). Two models were developed to estimate the LCOW: a simplified model and a subsequent optimization model, minimizing electricity costs. The resulting LCOW of 72.66 c€/m3, obtained for the decentralized solution, fits within the industry standard rate despite being 61.3% higher than the estimated conventional water supply production cost.

Highlights

Listed by the World Economic Forum as one of the biggest threats to the world’s economies, environment and people, water scarcity sets an unprecedented challenge to water management and energy policy makers [1]
The baseline scenario was analyzed by using the simplified model served as reference for the production cost that a conventionally-powered desalination plantand would obtain
The resulting annual costs were 64.1 M€, and the levelized cost of water (LCOW) was 90.6 c€/m, which was within the range of 59–281 c€/m3 annual costs were 64.1 M€, and the LCOW was 90.6 c€/m3, which was within the range of 59–281 mentioned in the literature [17]

Summary

Introduction

Listed by the World Economic Forum as one of the biggest threats to the world’s economies, environment and people, water scarcity sets an unprecedented challenge to water management and energy policy makers [1]. The 2007 European Commission Communication on water scarcity and droughts stated that these issues are a major challenge, and climate change is expected to make matters worse [2]. Namely seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO), have matured in the last decade from being a last resort solution to becoming strong candidates in water resource diversification. This shift was made possible by bringing down desalination’s energy consumption, its main drawback, towards the thermodynamic limit and plateauing at around 3 kWh/m3 [4,5]

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Conclusion