S05 TRME 4 2020 Genset Review_Layout 1 30/09/2020 06:18 Page 20
20
Water Treatment UK‐based Solar Water to build the first ever solar dome desalination plants in NEOM, located in northwest Saudi Arabia.
Photo Credit: NEOM
Solar desalination – the affordable solution
The desalination of seawater is an energy-hungry and expensive process. In arid regions such as the Middle East, however, where the sun shines most of the time, using renewable solar power to run desalination plants, is the viable way ahead. Tim Guest reports.
N SOME OF the more arid regions of the world, the desalination of seawater is one of the main sources of potable water for growing populations. The Middle East, which faces numerous challenges with current water resources, accounts for some 70% of desalination plants worldwide, located in countries like Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. And while there are numerous benefits from desalination, not least of which is the ultimate aim of producing clean drinking water, its high use of power results in raised energy prices and a more expensive water endproduct, both of which hurt the consumer. Yet, there is no getting away from the need for desalination plants. In the UAE, for example, which is one of the highest per capita users of fresh water anywhere on the globe, the water table is dropping by about one metre every year and at its current rate of usage, the emirates will exhaust natural water supplies within 50 years. That makes reliance on desalination a foregone conclusion. With such dependence on desalination across the region, it makes it crucial to find more efficient ways of operating and
I
powering the process and advances in photovoltaic/solar (PV) technologies with increased implementation in several places, are the major ‘great hope’ making a difference. Using solar energy to power desalination plants has the potential to make this waterproducing process viable and more sustainable for the whole region.
The World Bank sees concentrating solar power (CSP) as having, perhaps, the greatest significant benefits for desalination. Regional initiatives This sentiment is shared by the World Bank, which sees renewable energy (RE), especially solar, as having tremendous
Technical Review Middle East - Issue Four 2020
potential not only to provide overall energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the ME, but to reduce the high costs of desalination, eventually eliminating the process’ reliance on fossil fuel. Of the various solar technologies currently widely used in the power generation sector, the organisation sees concentrating solar power (CSP) as having, perhaps, the greatest significant benefits for desalination. It sees CSP as a competitive energy supply option and a good, economicallyviable RE technology able to store and provide power on demand; that makes it particularly suited for desalination plants, which typically operate 24/7. However, initial CSPpowered desalination in the past 10 years has still proven relatively expensive, although ongoing regional initiatives such as the World Bank’s cofinanced MENA CSP Investment Plan and DESERTEC have significant potential to bring down the cost of CSP further (the DESERTEC Foundation is a global civil society initiative aiming to shape a sustainable future by deriving energy from desert regions). Continued on page 45
www.technicalreview.me
