Rapid Sizing of Renewable Energy Power Components in Hybrid Power Plants for Reverse Osmosis Desalination Process

The cogeneration of water and electricity through the exploitation of Renewable Energy Sources is becoming an increasingly promising option, especially for arid and remote areas, where alternative energy supply is either unavailable or too costly to develop. This paper presents a new methodological approach for the preliminary design of a Renewable Energy (RE) power plant, primarily aimed at meeting the energy requirements of a Reverse Osmosis desalination unit. The design of the power plant’s components involves the calculation of the installed capacity of each RE component (Photovoltaics and Wind Energy Conversion Systems), the size of the energy storage system (Battery), and required auxiliary energy sources (Diesel Consumption). The sizing of the two RE components and the calculation of the corresponding energy production is performed using a simplified mathematical model for the diurnal variation of wind speed and solar radiation. The overall approach is applied for the rapid sizing of components and the estimation of auxiliary energy supply needed for a medium-sized desalination unit in Tunisia, and is complemented with a preliminary economic assessment of the power plant costs.