Techno-economic evaluation of a small-scale PV-BWRO system at different latitudes

Abstract: Water scarcity is a problem in remote locations, and producing fresh water in remote areas is an expensive process. The objective is to evaluate the optimum PV system to power BWRO desalination system that can produce 60 m³/d at constant daily load profile for locations at different latitudes ranging from 60°S to 60°N worldwide. Different design configurations are simulated using ROSA software. Simulations showed that two-stage RO system is the better option with lower energy consumption. Hybrid optimization model for electric renewables (HOMER) is used to evaluate a range of equipment and design options over varying constraints and sensitivities in terms of sizing for the economic optimization of the PV power system. The minimum initial cost of the PV system is $102,000 and found at latitudes 50° S/N, while the maximum initial cost is $133,000 and found at latitude −60°. The economic performance of the PV system is then optimized under Malaysia latitude by allowing portions of the annual load to go unserved. The result shows that the optimum combination is a system with a 28 kW PV array, 76 batteries, and 12 kW converter with 1.5% annual unmet load fraction at 2° of PV slope. Allowing a small percentage of loads to go unserved throughout the year reduces the cost of the system. Powering RO system with PV power showed different initial cost for different latitudes.