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Small-Scale of Water Production Using Renewable Energy: Economic Evaluation

Abstract:

In regions where the energy is fairly expensive, reverse osmosis (RO) is a favorable choice compared to any other thermal processes due to its lower energy consumption. Combining renewable energy systems with RO water desalination offers a viable solution to the scarcity of water in remote areas, especially in regions characterized by plentiful solar radiation such as the coast and keys around Cuba. This paper carries out an economic evaluation of a small-scale water production using renewable energy through the seawater RO process. This process presents the least rate of energetic consumption per produced water. Cost ratings are shown according to the small capacities of production desalinated water up to 50m3/d which are very reasonable compared with the water cost reported by small-sized desalination plants installed in other countries. The costs of desalinated water that were obtained in this work are for the fraction of Renewable Energy (RE) (participation of RE) more than 50%. Also are given the equations to calculate the investment cost index and the cost of desalinated water cost. The environmental costs associated with desalination, such as production of concentrated brine and carbon dioxide emissions, are not considered in the study due to lack of data