DESALINATION

ELSEXIER

Desalination 153 (2002) 17-23

www.elsevier.com/bcate/desal

Seawater reverse osmosis powered Tom renewable energy

sources - hybrid wind/photovoltaic/grid power supply for
small-scale desalination in Libya
Sultan A. Kershrnana, Jtigen Rheinl&nde?*, Hansjijrg Gablerb
General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL), Tripoli, Libya
Tel. +218 (21) 4808927; Fax +218 (21) 4808927: email: salkershman@hotmail. corn
Center for Soiar Energy and Hyakogen Resecuch, Baden- Wiirttemberg @SW), D-70565 Stuttgart, Germany
Tel. + 49 (711) 7870235; Fax +49 (711) 7870200; email: juergen.rheinlaender@sw-bw.de

Received 1 April 2002; accepted 15 April 2002

Abstract

GECOL and a consulting consortium of experts from ZSW, German Wind Energy Institute (DEWI) and Lahmeyer
International (Ll) are preparing the installation of an experimental plant for seawater reverse osmosis desalination
powered from renewable energy sources (SWRO+RES) at Libyas coast of the Mediterranean sea. The nominal
production of the plant will be 300 ml/d for the supply of a village with potable water. Both wind energy conversion
(WEC) and photovoltaic power generation (PV) will be integrated into a grid connected power supply for a reverse
osmosis (RO) desalination plant with power recovery. While the expected nominal power load for the operation of
the RO desalination system is 70 kW (net power after recovery), the solar PV system is designed for 50 kWp,, and
the WEC for 200 kW nominal output. The design aims at a reduction of the annual non-renewable energy consumption
to about 40%. The economic analysis of the integrated renewable energy systems predicts levelized water cost for
the integration of Grid+WEC with RO ofel .8/m3 and for Grid+PV with RO of cl .9/m3 compared to el .3/m3 for the
fossil only operation of the plant from the grid.
Keyword:

Reverse osmosis; Photovoltaics; Wind power; System integration; Hybrid power supply; Performance
analysis

*Corresponding author.
Presented at the EuroMed 2002 conference on Desalination Strategies in South Mediterranean
Countries:
Cooperation between Mediterranean Countries of Europe and the Southern Rim of the Mediterranean.
Sponsored by the European Desalination Society and Alexandria University Desalination Studies and Technology
Center, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, May 4-6, 2002.
00 1l-9 164/02/$- See front matter 0 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved
PII:SOOll-9164(02)01089-5

18

S.A. Kershman et al. / Desalination 153 (2002) 17-23

1. Introduction
From an already completed study on layout and
performance all technical and economic information
needed for the specification of equipment and
implementation
of the SWRO+RES plant was
obtained. The task comprised:
layout of feasible -configurations
for the
SWRO+RES plant,
definition of components and their technical
characteristics and cost,
prediction of performance for the selected design
configurations,
analysis of economics for the selected configurations.
In the beginning several configurations with
integration of a diesel engine and of a battery
system with power conditioning electronics for
stand-alone power supply as analyzed in [I] were
studied by the joint project team. Finally the team
decided for the implementation ofthe version with
permanent connection to the national power grid.
Solutions with either access to the national grid
or to a diesel based village grid will be the most
probable configurations for later exploitation of
the project results at other sites in the country.
Thus a short-term power storage and a stand alone
power conditioning (setting and control of voltage
and frequency) will not be required with the
integrated SWRO+RES system.
The actual concept of the combined integration
of both, PV and WEC into one desalination plant
is explained by GECOLs interest in the included
technology transfer and training opportunities.
The following basic sizing was obtained:
RO-desalination system with two streams of
up to 150 n-?/d each for stationary full load
operation during 24 h/d, requiring 70 kW
nominal AC power.
Size of PV field for generation of 50 kWpeak
such that one of the RO streams may be
operated on clear days during summer for 6 h/d
from PV output alone.
Selection of a commercially available WEC
for the generation of nominally 200 kW, which
l

is suitable for the above described operation

conditions.
The reference system for the evaluation of
incremental project cost and avoidance of CO, is
the Grid-only configuration.
2. The SWRO-RES configurations
The components and the basic scheme of their
integration into the SWRO+RES
system are
shown in Fig. 1.
For process simulation and optimization the
process simulation environment IPSEpro from
SimTech (Austria) [2] was adapted and completed
with mathematical component models for RO, PV,
WEC, inverters, accumulators and load management of a busbar.
The scheme shows the general configuration
as employed for the numerical performance
prediction: The connectors provided by the busbar
model for diesel engine and accumulator are not
used. The grid power connection can represent
either the national grid or a village grid. The power
results in Fig. 1 correspond to an arbitrarily chosen
sample case of moderate irradiance (500 W/m*)
and wind speed (4.7 m/s).
The four configurations submitted to technical
and economic analysis and the acronyms used to
name them in tables and text are:
Grid only
Grid+PV
Grid+WEC
Grid+PV+WEC

Baseline system powered from the

national grid only
Integration of solar PV power
generation into grid power supply
Integrationofwind energy conversion
into grid power supply
Integrationof PV and WEC into grid
power supply

The RO system is designed identically for all

configurations. The main design data for all SWRO+
RES configurations are summarized in Table 1.
2. Annual technical performance
The main objective of the analysis of the annual
technical performance of the SWRO+RES plant

S.A. Kershman et al. / Desalination 153 (2002) 17-23

19

I..

1 SWRO+RES

j 4.QQ 1kWh!m

[
Sea

Fig. 1. Components and integration of the SWRO+RES system.

Table 1
Design data for SWRO+RES configurations
Desalination system
Daily water production demanded, m/d
RO, rated capacity, m/d
Annual water production, m3/a
Nominal power demand of RO, feed pump system and
auxiliary loads, kW
RO, spec. power consumption, kWh/m
Annual power requirement, MWh/a
Seawater storage tank, m3
Product water storage tank. m3

300
300
109500
70

Power system

Grid only

Grid+PV

Grid+WEC

Grid+PV+WEC

Total rated output (including capacity of grid connection), kW

PV, rated output, kW
WEC. rated outnut, kW

70
0
0

120
50
0

270
0
200

320
50
200

5.6
613
100
300

20

S.A. Kershman et al. / Desalination 153 (2002) I7-23

was the detennination of the fraction of water that

can be produced from the use of renewable energy.
The performance of the integrated system depends
on the daily and seasonal variations of ambient
temperature, solar h-radiance, wind velocity, and
demand for potable water.
The analysis is done for the 24 h of one average
day of every month of a year. The Excel based
performance prediction yields graphs on daily
performance of the system and summary information like annual water production, energy conversion, renewable fraction, and fuel consumption.
The method and the software tools involved were
developed and employed earlier for the detailed
feasibility analysis of integrated solar combined
cycle systems for thermal power plants [3,4].
For the layout and performance calculations a
1 year hourly data set for temperature,
wind
velocity and irradiation was compiled according
to METEONORM standard. The nearest recorded
station to the project site Ras Ejder is Djerba
(latitude 33 5 and longitude 10.5, in Tunisia near
the border with Libya and on an island near the
Mediterranean coast). The main results from the
solar and wind data processing are:
1755 kWh/tn*a
738 kWhlm2a
1829 kWh/m2a
9 10 W/m2
1660 kWh/mza
4.40 m/s

annual total of global horizontal irradiation (GHI)

annual total of diffuse horizontal irradiation (DHI)
annual total of it-radiance on flat surfaces tilted at 25 from horizontal
maximum hourly mean of total irradiante (July 13th h of day)
annual total of direct normal irradiation
(DNJ)
annual average of wind speed at 10 m
above ground

The annual profile of the normalized power

output of the selected WEC shows a pronounced
daily peak during early afternoon hours (see Fig. 2).
For the actually implemented configuration
with integration of both renewable energy sources,
Grid+WEC+PV, the largest monthly deficit of
power supply to the RO process (constant 70 kW
required) is found for November (see Fig. 3). Grid

Time of day [hour]

Fig. 2. Normalized power output of WEC (monthly averages
of hourly values).

connection is required during the whole day. The

largest renewable contribution is associated with
May.
Thanks to the good wind potential in May no
grid supply is required for 8 h. Unfortunately the
peaks of PV and WEC occur practically simultaneously. Up to 45 kW power are fed back into the
grid.
Fig. 4 shows a breakdown of the fractions of
annual energy offered by the various sources to
the RO process. The accumulation ofthese fractions
may exceed the value 1 when excess power is
generated and fed into the national grid. The Gridonly reference system and the Grid+PV system
will consume just the energy required for the RO
process from the grid connection.
For the Grid+PV system the energy fraction
required from the grid is reduced to 89% by the
50 kW PV system. In the Grid+WEC system the
annually available WEC power will cover 57%
of the energy required for RO. About 2% excess
power is fed into the grid. Up to 43% of the annual
energy demand are still requested from the grid.
In case of the combined configuration Grid+
PV+WEC the effect of excess power potential is
more pronounced: Additionally to the 57% from

S.A. Kershman et al. /Desalination

SwRO+RES, Grid + PV + WEC

21

153 (2002) 17-23

SWRO+RES,.., Grid
+ PV
+ WEC
. ., .., _._.
.

120,

.,..,

.,

m Grid
I Desel
ACCU

40

I.

._..

. .._

_I._.._.-I-..
.___
__...
_ ___
-._--.___.._

Solar time of day in November

[h]

40 I

._-..._.
I____~
I---......--.--._-..L
Solar time of day in May [h]

Fig. 3. Performance of grid, PV and WEC power supply in November and May.

SWRO+RES

1.20

3. Economic analysis (Table 3)

5
._
pi

4 1.w

0.80

2
c

05

0.w

2
g

0.40

g 0.20
IF
0.90
Grid only

Grkl+W

Grid+WEC

Gfld+PV+WEC

Fig. 4. Fractions of energy contributions to annual power

supply to SWRO.

the WEC another 12% are available from PV. But

the excess energy cannot be stored and an amount
equal to a fraction of 8% of the demanded annual
energy will be fed back into the grid. Fig. 4 already
includes information on the total levelized water
cost LWC.
The performance data required for comparison
of systems and for the economic analysis are
summarized in Table 2.

The total project cost is calculated as the present

value of the project at start, and includes all cost
items expected during the assumed life of 20
years. The conventional Grid-only SWRO plant
is evaluated at 1.69 Me total project cost. The
incremental costs allocated with the different configurations for integration of RES compared to
the grid-only reference system amount to 39% for
the Grid+PV system, 3 1% for the Grid+WEC
system, and 7 1% for the Grid +PV+WEC system.
Levelized production cost is separately evaluated
for the production of the electricity and potable
water. In this context the power generation is seen
as a local de-centralized small-scale power plant
and the levelized electricity cost (LEC) calculation
excludes the cost components of the SWRO. The
levelized water cost (LWC) includes all cost components of the project. The evaluation method was
developed earlier for the comparison and assessment of small-scale technologies for the desalination
or distillation of typically 10 m3/d of water [5].
The pronounced differences between the LEC
for the configurations reflect the impact of the
larger incremental investment costs for de-central

22

S.A. Kershman et al. / Desalination 153 (2002) 17-23

Table 2
Results from technical performance prediction
Design and performance

Grid
(reference)

Grid PV

Grid+WEC

Grid+PV+WEC

70

70
50

70

70

120

70
50
200
320

613
613

613
543
70

613
0

613
0
11.4%
0%
11.4%

347
619
6
0%
56.1%
56.1%

613
243
70
347
660
47
10.6%
52.6%
63.2%

1753
148
526
0.857

1551
131
465
0.759
11.5%

776
65
233
0.379
55.8%

694
59
208
0.340
60.4%

Power system
Grid connection, nominal capacity, kW
PV, rated power output, kW
WEC, rated power output, kW
Grid+RES, total cumulative capacity, kW
Energy balance
Grid+RES, energy supplied to SWRO, MWh/a
Grid, annual energy to SWRO, MWh/a
PV, annual energy generated, MWhla
WEC, annual energy generated, MWh/a
Grid+RES, total energy processed, MWhIa
Energy lost, rejected or fed into grid, MWh/a
PV, fraction of total energy processed, %
WEC, fraction of total energy processed, %
PV+WEC, fraction of total energy processed, %
Fuel and emissions
External fuel LHV consumption, MWh,,,/a
External fuel consumption, t/a
COz emission, external, t/a
Total CO*-emission specific for power, kg/kWh
Relative GHG(-CO*)-avoidance, %

200
270
613
271

Table 3
Project cost and levelized cost

Investment, c
Project cost (present value), c
Incremental cost of the project, c
Levelised energy cost (LEC), &/kWh
Levelised water cost (LWC), (Z/m3
Avoidance of COz-emission, t/a
Cost of CO,-avoidance , W

Grid

Grid+PV

Grid+WEC

Grid+PV+WEC

1,020,345
1,691,103

1,634,970
2,345,817
654,714
13.0
1.868
60
542

1,490,595
2,221,780
530,678
11.2
1.769
293
91

2,105,220
2,89 1,907
1,200,804
20.7
2.303
317
189

3.7
1.346
0

renewable power generation compared to central

conventional power production from fossil energy.
The environmental benefit from the Grid+PV
configuration would be rather modest with 11%
solar fraction only. The attractive benefit of 56%
wind energy fraction would be achieved with a
3 1% rise of the LWC only.

The key results for the configuration proposed

for implementation (Grid+PV+WEC) are:
63% fraction of energy from RES
2.11 MZ
investment
0.25 Mela
annual costs
2.89 Me
total project cost (present value)
incremental cost of the project
1.20 Me

S.A. Kershman et al. / Desalination 153 (2002) 17-23

20.7 EclkWh
2.30 iYm3

LEC compared to 3.7 t?c/kWh for the

reference configuration
LWC compared to 1.35 urn3 for the reference configuration

Thus the LWC for the Grid+PV+WEC configuration too is not more than 7 1% higher than
the LWC for the reference system.

References
[l]

H.G. Beyer, T. Degner and H. Gabler, Operational

behavior of wind diesel systems incorporating shortterm storage: an analysis via simulation calculations,
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