Abstract
This paper presents a generalized methodology to evaluate the feasibility of photovoltaic-powered reverse osmosis (PVRO) systems for small, remote communities in challenging environments. The economic feasibility is determined by comparing the cost of water from a photovoltaic reverse osmosis system with the cost of water obtained using conventional diesel-powered reverse osmosis. For PVRO systems, the feasibility is a function of location due to variation in solar resource, water type, system demand and local governmental policies. A series of sample cases were analyzed to demonstrate the method. Analysis for community-scale seawater reverse osmosis systems was carried out for various locations using Geographic Information System (GIS) data. A site-specific analysis has been completed for seawater and brackish water reverse osmosis systems. It was found that photovoltaic-powered reverse osmosis is feasible for the majority of remote locations with a large solar resource.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3246-3256 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Renewable Energy |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2011 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors would like to thank the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia , for funding the research reported in this paper through the Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy at MIT and KFUPM. The authors would also like to thank the Cyprus Institute for their financial support of Ms. Bilton. In addition, the authors thank Leah Kelley and Richard Heller for their helpful comments during the development of this work.
Keywords
- Feasibility
- Photovoltaic
- Reverse osmosis
- Rural
- Small-scale
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
