Design and Cost Analysis of Hybrid Renewable Energy for Water Desalination in Remote Areas

A large proportion of the worlds population lives in remote areas that have no access to fresh water sources and not connected to the electrical grid at the same time. The aim of this paper is to investigate the possibility of replacing diesel power generation, which is the major source for green house gas emission, with hybrid renewable energy systems for seawater reverse osmosis desalination in remote areas. The hybrid energy system based on renewable energy technologies with back up generation from fossil fuel improves the system reliability. Various renewable and non renewable energy sources, energy storage methods and their applicability in terms of cost and performance are discussed. The cost of energy is the main parameter used to compare economic performances of the systems. A software tool, Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable (HOMER) is used for the analysis. Based on simulation results, it has been found that renewable energy sources will replace the conventional energy sources and would be a feasible solution for cleaner generation of electric power for reverse osmosis desalination at remote and distant location