Techno-economic analysis of renewable energy systems with pumped hydro storage for desalinating water in Saudi Arabia

The growing global population relies heavily on electricity and clean water. With limited freshwater resources, desalination of seawater using electricity is necessary. This study analyses the techno-economics of standalone solar, wind, and hybrid solar-wind energy systems coupled with battery or pumped hydro storage for powering reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plants. The desalination plants are designed to meet the freshwater requirements of 1000 homes in three Saudi Arabian coastal cities: Yanbu, Jeddah, and Jazan, corresponding to daily freshwater demands of 0.311 m³/day, 0.246 m³/day, and 0.182 m³/day, respectively. The analysis was performed using HOMER software, and the cost of electricity was selected as the sizing criterion. The results showed that hybrid solar-wind with pumped hydro storage was the most feasible configuration for Yanbu and Jeddah, while solar with pumped hydro storage was optimal for Jazan. The electricity cost for Yanbu and Jeddah was 0.173 $/kWh, while it was 0.179 $/kWh for Jazan. Desalinated water costs ranged from 0.787 to 0.899 $/m³ across the three locations, with pumped hydro storage emerging as the most cost-effective energy storage option. In Jeddah, electricity generation was evenly balanced, with solar and wind each supplying approximately 50%. Conversely, Yanbu relied heavily on solar power, contributing around 80%, while wind energy generated the remaining 20 %.