Yearly simulations of the electricity and fresh water production in PT-CSP+MED-TVC plants: Case study in Almería (Spain)

Abstract

Seawater desalination has been proved as a reliable method for large-scale fresh water supply in arid and semi-arid regions, such as Middle East countries, since the middle of the twentieth century. However, those technologies are energy-intensive consumers, which rely habitually on the utilization of fossil energy sources. On the other hand, Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants have been proposed in those regions as clean alternatives for power production, since they have high levels of solar irradiation during the whole year. Therefore, the integration of CSP plants and desalination units for the joint production of electricity and fresh water in those zones benefits from the synergies presented. However, there is a lack of tools that determine the yearly fresh water and power production accurately, which is crucial for the proper selection of the best arrangement configuration and of the best operation strategies as a function of the electricity and water demands. The aim of this study is the development of a simulation tool that provides an accurate assessment of the annual power and fresh water production of an integrated CSP+D plant. For this purpose, models of each component of the integrated plant have been developed and implemented in different software environments. In particular, this work presents the integration between a Parabolic Trough Concentrating Solar Power (PT-CSP) plant with a Multi-Effect Distillation Thermal Vapor Compression (MED-TVC) unit that uses variable nozzle thermocompressors. The tool has been applied to a case study, taking Almería (Spain) as the location of the dual plant. Different coupling arrangements have been considered depending on the local water and power demands.