Abstract
Water scarcity is a serious problem for the Aegean Islands in Greece. Due to the fact that tourist development grows in a continuous way, the situation has deteriorated over the last years. Current water resources management practices involving the exploitation of the groundwater reservoirs have provoked the salty water intrusion into the aquifers and in many arid islands water is transported by sea, at a considerably high cost (reaches about 12 €/m³ in some cases). Desalination is foreseen as a solution to this problem and it has already been adopted in many islands, as it is a process that can provide fresh and potable water in the required quantities, at a much lower cost. The coupling of desalination with renewable energy sources (RES) constitutes an appealing and promising option. This paper presents an integrated case study regarding the design and operation of a water-energy system for meeting irrigation and potable water demand in Lipsi Island (Dodecanese complex, Greece). As the desalination unit operation depends on the wind power, a detailed description regarding the generation of synthetic time series of wind speed data is also presented. Finally, a Cost-Benefit Analysis is carried out to discuss each scenario we examine from a financial perspective.
Highlights
Water, energy and food constitute the fundamental elements for the maintenance of life, the development of society and they reinforce the effort for sustainable development
As far as water demand increases in the last decades in small Greek islands [25], mainly as a result of the increasing number of tourists and because of the limited local water resources and the unsustainable current water management practices of water importation by ship, renewable energy powered desalination systems gain ground as a sustainable solution to provide fresh water in remote areas and to supply the local energy requirements
Concerning the case study that is examined in the context of this research work, it is found that the energy production experiences many fluctuations throughout the year, as this is a function of the local wind potential
Summary
Energy and food constitute the fundamental elements for the maintenance of life, the development of society and they reinforce the effort for sustainable development. Regarding the future projections in food and fresh water demand, it is expected that the needs will be increased by 50% until 2050 [3], while the energy demand is expected to double as a matter of the financial development. This aspect contradicts with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No.6 [4] according to which the availability and the sustainable management of water and sanitation must be provided to every people and for the future. The current state of water and energy management requires the investigation of alternative and more sustainable ways to meet the water and energy supply needs
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