Solar Power Technologies for Desalination

John H. Reif
Department of Computer Science,
Duke University, Durham, NC 27707 USA
reif@cs.duke.edu

Abstract
Throughout the world, there are regions of vast extent that have many favorable features, but whose development is
principally limited by the lack of fresh water. In arid areas where large-scale development has already occurred, e.g. parts of
the Middle East and North Africa, the extraction of fresh water via desalination plants requires very large energy
consumption. This motivates the development of solar-desalination systems, which are desalination systems that are powered
by solar energy. With the goal of identifying key technical challenges and potential opportunities solar-desalination, we
review a variety of solar energy technologies used for capturing and concentrating heat energy, and also review various
technologies for desalination systems including advanced techniques for energy-recovery. Existing solar-powered
desalination plants have generally been indirect solar-desalination systems that first (i) transform solar energy into electrical
energy and then (ii) employ the resulting electrical energy to drive desalination systems. Other, potentially more efficient
direct solar-desalination systems directly convert the solar energy to pressure and/or heat, and use these to directly power the
desalination process. We compare the cost-effectiveness, energy-efficiency, and other relevant quantities of these potential
technologies for solar-desalination systems. We conclude that the direct solar-desalination systems using solar-thermal
collectors appear to be most attractive for optimization of the energy-efficiency of solar-desalination systems. Further, we
consider the economics and other practical issues associated with employing solar-desalination systems to provide for
economic water sources for urban and agricultural areas. We consider factors that have significant impact to the use of solar-
desalination systems: including location, climate, the type of water source (ocean water or brackish water sources), as well as
land-use and ecological issues. We observe that the most favorable locations are those with high solar irradiance, lack of
fresh water, but access to large brackish water sources and/or proximate seawater. We review the known locations of global
brackish water reserves and areas with proximate seawater. Finally, we determine what appear to be the most favorable
candidate locations for solar-desalination systems, which include considerable sections of North and East Africa, the Middle
East, Southern Europe, Western South America, Australia, Northern Mexico, and South-West USA. We conclude that the
development of cost-effective and energy-efficient solar-desalination systems may in the immediate future the key to a future
“terraforming” of otherwise desert and near-desert regions of the world, providing a “greening” of these regions.

Keywords – solar energy; desalination, solar-desalination, brackish water, solar concentrators, alternative energy

1
1 Introduction
1.1 A Historical Prospective: Prior Greening of the World at the End of the Pleistocene
Interestingly, many areas such as the Middle East and North Africa were not always arid. At the end of the Pleistocene,
roughly 12,000 years ago, the melting of glacier ice allowed many such areas have considerable fresh water. These conditions
persisted to a degree even up to the Classic period 2000 years ago, and in those times for example certain areas that are now
deserts in North Africa were a significant source of grains for Rome.
1.2 Current Freshwater Reserves

Figure 1: World map of freshwater (in green) reserves [Gleeson, 2012, Figure 1]

We will use the term fresh water to denote water with no more than approx. 500 to 100 ppm salinity; fresh water constitutes
only 3%-5% of the world’s water [ADA, 2002]. To determine the areas where desalination is of use, see the above Figure 1,
which provides a world map of current freshwater water reserves [Gleeson, 2012].

1.2 Rapidly Diminishing Accessible Freshwater Reserves

The high rate of population growth and climate change presents increased need for freshwater, and in the next decades many
further areas of the world are expected also to require substantial use of desalination. Agriculture currently uses
approximately 70% of fresh water, and overall agricultural water use will increase substantially with population growth,
perhaps by 50% within 15 to 20 years. Agriculture use of fresh water competes with the industrial (approx. 20%) and
household (approx. 10%) use of freshwater. A number of arid areas (e.g., much of the Middle East) already completely utilize
all available sources of fresh water, and need to rely on desalination. In the future, with demand for fresh water approx.
doubling every twenty years, many more regions will need to rely on desalination for a growing proportion of their fresh
water needs.

1.3 Green Terraforming: The Increasing Need for Desalination of Saline and Brackish Water Reserves
We use the term “Green Terraforming” to describe the goal of transforming now arid areas of the world (e.g., sections of
North and East Africa, the Middle East, Southern Europe, Western South America, Australia’s interior, and South-West
USA) to areas with considerable available fresh water. We will be discussing technology that with further improvement and
the overcoming of some considerable technical challenges may lead to such as “Green Terraforming” of arid regions.
1.4 Classification of Waters
A key issue for desalination is the source volume, salinity, and other dissolved solids of the feed water used for desalination.

2
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Table 1: Classification of waters by total dissolved solids [Rhoades, 1992, Table 1]

The above Table 1 gives Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in grams per liter (g/l), as well as electrical conductivity (EC),
expressed in units of deciSiemen per meter (dS/m). (Note that for TDS consisting only of Na Cl salts, the TDS of 1 gram per
liter (g/l) is the same as 1,000 ppm.) Observe from the Table 1 that irrigation water can, depending on the crop, be up to
approximately three times the TDS of drinking water. Also, ground water has a wide variation of TDS, depending on the
drainage and topsoil.
Classification of waters by salinity: Brackish water is water with salinity between that of fresh water and seawater (in the
range of approx. 5,000-35,0000 ppm, but typically approx. 10,000-15,000 ppm), and constitutes approximately 23% of the
world’s water [ADA, 2002]. The salinity of seawater ranges between 35,000 to 45,000 ppm, and constitutes approximately
58% of the world’s water [ADA, 2002]. Other water consists of wastewater (approximately 5%), and river water
(approximately 7%), and other sources [ADA, 2002]. Unfortunately, a large proportion of wastewater of developing nations
is released directly into rivers, thus further limiting sources of fresh water.
1.5 Saline and Brackish Water Reserves
The salinity and composition of the input feed to any desalination system is critical, and so it is essential to know the
accessible sources, saline concentration of nearby saline and brackish water.
The first issue is the situation of the saline and brackish water. The Figure 2 below gives a world map of situations of saline
water reserves, with Basin (red), Sedimentary-Basin (yellow), Mountain (green), volcanic (blue) [Weert, 2009]. Note that
brackish water reserves of Figure 3 often result from freshwater sources that are in contact with saline sediments or seawater
seepage. Furthermore, brackish water can be found often near salt domes, and so collocated near deposits of oil or natural
gas.
The next issue is the geographic locations of the saline and brackish water. Figure 3 below gives a world map of brackish
water reserves [Weert, 2012] and in Figures 4 and 5 maps are also given for brackish water reserves in the Middle East and
North Africa, respectively. Observe the extent of brackish water with partial marine origin (in blue), e.g., those ringing much
of Africa, and particularly evident in North Africa. Also, observe the large brackish water reserves of natural terrestrial origin
(in red) in eastern Saudi Arabia, which may be associated with salt domes.

An extensive study of seawater and brackish water desalination in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia is given in
[Schenkeveld , 2004].

3
 Figure 2: World map of situation of saline water reserves [van Weert, 2009]
Figure 1. Occurrence of saline and brackish groundwater at shallow and intermediate depths

Figure 3: World map of brackish water reserves [van Weert, 2009]

4
1.6 Goals and Organization of Paper
It should be noted that there is a very extensive existing literature (which we shall cite) both for desalination technologies
and for solar powered technologies, and it our goal to provide a brief introduction and overview of those technologies
sufficient to discuss them in conjunction.
In this section 1 we have motivated the rapidly increasing need for desalination. In section 2 we overview known desalination
technologies, as well as their cost-efficiency, energy-efficiency, and technological challenges: in particular, the challenge of
adapting desalination technologies to best utilize the power supplied by solar energy. In section 3 we discuss known solar
technologies, as well as their cost-efficiency, energy-efficiency, and technological challenges. In section 4 we discuss how to
best adapt these solar technologies to provide power for desalination. In section 5 we conclude the paper with a discussion of
future challenges.
2 Desalination Technologies: Their Cost-Effectiveness, Energy-Efficiency, and Challenges
This section provides a brief overview of desalination systems (of which [DESWARE, 2014] is perhaps the most extensive
review of desalination technology and extant desalination plants) to provide the context and motivation for solar-powered
desalination.
2.1 Overview of Desalination
Desalination is the process of removing salt and other minerals from saline water (e.g., separating the salt content of
converting from salt water). The desalination recovery ratio is the ratio of the desalinated water volume to the seawater
volume.
The energy cost is 0.86 kWh m-3 for conversion of seawater with saline content of 34,500 ppm at a temperature of 250C
[DESWARE, 2014]. The cost for desalination has considerably reduced in recent years, and in the US is approximately $0.5
m-3 to $1 m-3.
As stated above, many of the countries in the Middle East make extensive use of desalination for fresh water. For example,
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States are currently almost completely dependent on desalination for much of its
water needs, and this incurs considerable use of nonrenewable energy. The Shoaiba Desalination Plant in Saudi Arabia
constructed in 2003 was at the time the world’s largest desalination plant with a capacity of 150 million m³/year. This
desalination plant uses non-renewable power is from oil-fired turbines, and also makes use of the resulting heat to power
seawater distillers.
This illustrates the challenge for oil and natural gas producing countries in the Middle East, which are dependent on: their
energy reserves are being squandered by their need for very energy-costly desalination. This motivates their need for solar-
powered desalination. As a side effect of this need for desalination, the countries in the Middle East have considerable
academic and industrial expertise in desalination, including solar-powered desalination, as will be evident from our papers
references.

Desalination (using nonrenewable power) is described in the following:

• Principals of desalination are given in [Crittenden, 2000], [El-Dessouki, 2002], [El-Dessouki, 2008], [Shanmugam,
2004], [Watson, 2003], [Trussell, 2005].

• Seawater desalination is described in [Al-sofi, 2011], [Alawaji, 2007], [Al-Sahlawi, 1999], [Mickols, 2005],
[Elimelech, 2011].

• Case studies for given locations include: Saudia Arabia [Al-Sahlawi, 1999], [Azis, 2000], Kuwait [Finan, 2003],
California [Erik, 2011].
• Study of the environmental costs of desalination is given in [Purnamaa, 2005]

• Industrial status reports for extant desalination plants are given in [DESWARE, 2014], [Fried, 2011], [NRC, 2008]

We will now overview the most important classes of large-scale desalination systems (intentionally ignoring solar stills, since
they are much smaller scale), and noting the challenges associate with powering these with solar power.
2.2 Osmosis Desalination Systems
Suppose there are two fluid volumes of distinct solution concentration separated by semi-permeable membrane. These
distinct solution concentrations induce an osmotic pressure of the solvent molecules in a direction from lower concentration
to higher concentration; that in in the direction that equalizes the solute concentrations on the two sides.

5
 All osmosis desalination systems are based on osmosis, and make use of concentration differences of solvents separated by
semi-permeable membranes. However, there are a number of distinct classes of osmosis desalination systems described
below.
It is important to note that the actual movement of solvent molecules depends also on the pressures on fluids the two sides of
the semi-permeable membrane. In particular, if pressures on fluids the two sides of the semi-permeable membrane are the
same, then there is a movement of the fluid volume of lower solution concentration through the semi-permeable membrane
into a fluid volume of higher solution concentration; this is called forward osmosis. On the other hand, if sufficient pressure
in excess of the osmotic pressure is applied to the fluid the side of the semi-permeable membrane where the solute
concentration is smaller, then there is a reverse movement of the fluid volume of higher solution concentration through the
semi-permeable membrane into a fluid volume of low solution concentration; this is called reverse osmosis.
Note: Various types of filtration (including microfiltration, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration) are typically applied for
pretreatment of seawater or brackish water prior to osmosis desalination; for example incoming saline feedwater is often first
pretreated by removing suspended solids, adding inhibitors to limit scaling (e.g., by calcium sulphate), and often adjusting the
pH. Further, post-treatment after typically involves (i) adding Ca or Na salts to stabilize the pH, (ii) removal of dissolved
CO2 and other gases. These pretreatment and post-treatment filtrations can use the pressurization provided by a solar-thermal
concentrating system. The post-treatment consume much less energy compared to the desalination process, but so can cost-
effectively use conventional energy sources.
2.2a Reverse Osmosis Desalination Systems
S.A. Kalogirou / Progress in Energy and Combustion Science 31 (2005) 242–281 261

HIGH PRESSURE
PUMP RO PLANT
STERILISER

SEA–WATER CARTRIDGE
FILTER

DUAL ANTISCALANT
MEDIA ACID
FILTER MEMBRANES
MODULES POST–TREATMENT

DECARBONATOR
PRETREATMENT
BRINE TO
WASTE
ENERGY RECOVERY LIME
TURBINE (IF FITTED)
PRODUCT

Fig. 12. Principle of operation of a reverse osmosis (RO) system.

Figure 4: Reverse Osmosis (RO) Filtration (from [Kalogirou, 2005])
toReverse
pump the osmosis
feed water (RO)atfiltration
a pressuremakesabove use
the of an externallyTabor
osmotic applied[165]pressure
analyseddifferential
a system using to an
achieve desalination; a saline
RO desalination
solutionInispractice,
pressure. separated from
higher it’s dissolved
pressures saltstypically
must be used, by pressurizing the saline
unit driven by PVfeedwater solution
panels or from in a closedplant.
a solar–thermal container
He so it flows
50–80 atm,a in
through order to have amembrane,
semi-permeable sufficient amount concluded salts
of water the dissolved
thus separating that due
from to the
the pure
high water.
cost of the solar equipment
pass through a unit area of membrane [161]. With reference to the cost of fresh water is about the same as with an RO
As 12,
Fig. described
the feed is above, RO makes
pressurised use of pressure
by a high-pressure pump and as a driving
systemforce
operatedto move
from the themain
saline solution
power supply.through a semi-permeable
membrane
made ([Crittenden,
to flow across 2005])surface.
the membrane to separate
Part ofthe
thissolutes
feed from the Cercifeed[45] water. This requires
performed application
an exergy of a of
analysis pressure
a in excess
of thethrough
passes osmotic thepressure
membrane, (seawater
where thethatmajority
has salinity
of theof 35 g/kg
7250 has an osmotic
m3/day pressure(RO)
reverse osmosis of about 25 bar; plant
desalination recallinthat a bar is a
unit of solids
dissolved pressure that is approximately
are removed. the atmospheric
The remainder, together with the pressure at sea
California. Thelevel,
analysisor ofabout 15 psi),was
the system which forcesbythe pure water
conducted
component
remaining salts,ofis saline
rejectedwater
at highthrough
pressure.aInsemipermeable
larger plants, it membrane:
using actualthe plant
membrane
operation generally
data. Thecontains
RO plant ais polymer
described matrix which
isexcludes the flow
economically viableoftosalt and other
recover minerals
the rejected brinebut allows theinflow
energy ofand
detail, purethewater.
exergies Toacross
produce rapid components
the major flow, the pressure
of needs to
be in
with considerable
a suitable excessSuch
brine turbine. of the osmotic
systems pressure;
are called energythe ROthe operating
plant arepressures
calculatedforand seawater desalination
illustrated using exergy rangeflowbetween 55 to
70 bar,reverse
recovery and forosmosis
brackish water systems.
(ER-RO) desalination the operating pressuresdiagrams rangein an from
attempt 15 to
to 25 bar.the exergy destruction
assess
Solar energy can be used with RO systems as a prime distribution. It was found that the primary locations of
The remaining
mover source driving feedwater
the pumps on the pressurized
[162] or with the side has increased
direct exergysalinity
destructionand were
a portion continuously
the membrane modulesexitsinthe
whichfiltration system
as a concentrated brine.
production of electricity through the use of photovoltaic the saline water is separated into the brine and the permeate,
panels [163].RO
Currently Wind isenergy
one ofcanthealso be used
most as a prime
efficient mover
technologies forand the throttling
desalination andvalves,
is usedwhere the pressure of59%
in approximately liquid is desalination
of all
source. As the unit cost of the electricity produced from reduced, pressure drops through various process com-
systems worldwide [Widiasa, 2009]. The energy use for RO distillation of seawater is given in [DESWARE, 2014] to be 3-
-3 ponents, and the mixing chamber, where the permeate and
photovoltaic
5.5 kWh mcells butisfurther
high, photovoltaic-powered
improvements may RO reduce this to 2.5-5 kWh m-3. RO filtration technology is highly developed, and is
plants
are equipped with energy-recovery turbines. The output of blend are mixed. The largest exergy destruction occurred in
generally considered at this time the most efficient method for desalination. In many of these modern systems, up to 98%
RO systems is about 500–1500 l per day per square metre of the membrane modules, and this amounted to 74.1% of the
energy recovery of pressurization energy is made by use of isobaric
total exergyenergy
input. Therecovery
smallestsystems which pre-pressurize
exergy destruction occurred the input,
membrane, depending on the amount of salts in the raw water
by placing the concentrate reject and input feedwater (seawater or brackish water) in contact together
in the mixing chamber. The mixing accounted for 0.67% of in isobaric chambers.
and the condition of the membrane. The membranes are in
Energy recovery systems for RO desalination are given in the [Al-Hawaj,
total exergy 2003], [Andrews,
input 2001],a [Farooque,
and presents 2004], [Farooque,
relatively small
effect very fine filters, and are very sensitive to both
2008], [Harris, 1999], [Leandro, 2008], [MacHarg, 2003],fraction. [Migliorini,
The 2004], [Pen
second law ̃ateB, 2011],
efficiency of [Oklejas,
the plant 2007], [Rahman,
was
biological and non-biological fouling. To avoid fouling,
careful pre-treatment of the feed is necessary before it is calculated to be 4.3%, which seems to be low. It is shown
allowed to come in contact with the membrane surface. that 6
the second law of efficiency can be increased to 4.9% by
One method used recently for the pre-treatment of introducing a pressure exchanger with two throttling valves
seawater before directed to RO modules is nano-filtration on the brine stream, and this saved 19.8 kW of electricity by
(NF). NF is primarily developed as a membrane softening reducing the pumping power of the incoming saline water.
2011], [Rayana, 2002], [Rybar, 2010], [Stover, 2007a], [Stover, 2007b], [Wilf, 2005], [William, 2001], [Zhou, 2004]. Highly
efficient RO filtration systems for desalination are commercial available.
Descriptions of RO desalination without use of renewable power are given in:

• A review of RO desalination is given in [Widiasa, 2009].

• [Wagner, 2002] gives a handbook on membrane filtration, including RO.

• Energy analysis for RO desalination is given in [Song, 2011].

• RO systems in various locations are described and analyzed for Saudi Arabia ([Almudaiheem, 1998], [Alawaji,
2007], [Al-Mutaz, 2006]) and Egypt ([Hafez, 2002]).

• Studies of experimental system in Saudi Arabia are given in [Baig, 1998], [Khawaji, 2007].

There is an increasing number of studies of the use of solar power for RO:
• RO desalination can be driven either by PV electrical generators or by pressurization energy from solar-thermal
concentrator systems. Reviews are given in [Sampathkumar, 2010], [Verdier, 2011], and

• A feasibility study of brackish water desalination using PV is is given in [Schmid, 2002].

• A demonstration study for Jordan is given in [Mohsena, 1999].

In the case where a solar concentrator system is used to provide the power for a reverse osmosis desalination system, there
are various considerations:
(a) Only Moderate Pressure (approximately 55-70 bar for seawater and 15 to 25 bar for brackish water) is Required for
Reverse Osmosis Filtration: This is much less pressure than required for driving high-performance steam turbines used for
electrical generation, which require pressure ranging from at least 75 to 120 bar. This implies that a solar concentrator
system (that powers the Reverse Osmosis Filtration) needs a much lower solar concentration ratio (only approximately 15-
20) than would be the case where the solar concentrator was used for steam turbines used for electrical generation.
(b) Energy Required for Reverse Osmosis Filtration Pressurization: In high efficiency reverse osmosis systems energy
recovery and pressure conversion devices are used, resulting in approximate pressurization energy requirement of approx. 3-
5.5 kWh/m3 for seawater desalination. The pressurization energy required by even the most efficient reverse osmosis
filtration system is therefore considerable, and this motivates the goal of use of solar energy for this task, rather than
valuable non-renewable energy reserves.
2.2b Forward Osmosis (FO) Desalination Systems
Like reverse osmosis, forward osmosis (FO) (see [Khaydarov, 2007], [Tinge, 2007], [Khaydarov, 2007], [Tinge, 2007],
[Linares, 2014] and [McGovern, 2014c], and [Chung, 2015]) is an osmotic process that separates water from dissolved
solutes by use of semi-permeable membranes. However, in FO the osmotic pressure gradient is the driving force (rather than
externally applied pressure as in RO) to partially separate the feed water from its solutes. In FO a high concentration “draw”
solution is used to induce a net flow of feedwater through the semi-permeable membrane into the draw solution. The
resulting separation of the feed water from its solutes is only partial, since the draw solution solutes may also diffuse to the
feedwater. However, FO requires significantly less energy than for RO.

2.2c Pressure Retarded Osmosis (PRO) Desalination Systems

Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) (see [Altaee, 2014], [Altaee, 2015a], [Altaee, 2015b], [Chein, 2016], [Helfer, 2014], [Saito,
2012], and [Chung, 2015]) can either be used as (a) a technique to separate a solvent (e.g., pure water) from a more
concentrated pressurized solution (e.g., brackish or sea water), or (b) as a method for generating power (invented by Prof.
Sidney Loeb of Ben-Gurion University) by harvesting the osmatic pressure difference of the salt concentration between a
solvent (e.g., pure water or treated wastewater) and a more concentrated solution (e.g., brackish or sea water) across a semi-
permeable membrane. This pressure difference can be as high as approximately 26 bars, but is typically set to a reduced
working pressure of approximately 12 to 15 bars.

2.2d Combined Osmosis Desalination Systems

Various studies of combined osmosis desalination systems include a combined FO and RO system [Choi, 2009], a combined
RO and PRO [He, 2015], a combined RO (powered by PV) and PRO [Prante, 2014], as well as RO combined with an organic

7
10 m /day solar MSF desalination system tested in Kuwait. part, to heat the incoming feed and, in part, to provide the
The system consisted of a 220 m2 parabolic trough heat supply for the second effect, which is at a lower
collectors, 7000 l of thermal storage and a 12-stage MSF pressure and receives its feed from the brine of the first
desalination system. The thermal storage system was used to effect. This process is repeated all the way through (down)
level off the thermal energy supply and allowed the the plant. The distillate also passes down the plant. Both the
production of fresh water to continue during periods of brine and distillate flash as they travel down the plant due to
low radiation and night-time. The output of the system is progressive reduction in pressure [150].
reported to be over 10 times the output of solar stills for the There are many possible variations of MEB plants,
rankine area.
same solar collection cycle (ORC) (see [Delgado-Torres, 2007b] and [Delgado-Torres,
depending on the combinations 2007c]).
of heat-transfer configur-
ations and flowsheet arrangements used. Early plants were
2.3 Multi-Effect
5.2. The multiple-effect Desalination
boiling (MEB) process (MED) and Mult-Stage Flash (MSF)
of the submerged Desalination
tube design and used only two to three
effects. In modern systems, the problem of low evaporation
The MEB In both shown
process Multi-Effect
in Fig. Desalination (MED)
8 is also composed of and Multi-Stage Flash (MSF)
rate has been resolved Desalination
by making methods,
use of the thin the high saline feed water is
film designs
sent through
a number of elements, a series
which of evaporator
are called effects. Thetubes
steamwith decreasing heatliquid
with the feed and pressure.
distributed on the heating surface in

STEAM VACCUM

FLASH
VESSEL
COLLECTORS
SOLAR

BLOWDOWN
SEA–WATER
DISTILLATE

Fig. 8. Principle of operation of a multiple-effect boiling (MEB) system.

Figure 5: Design for MED desalination system using boilers (from [Kalogirou,2005])

In the MED method (also known as MEB for its use of boilers), each of the evaporator tubes is heated (by the solar thermal
energy in our applications) to produce steam, which is condensed by the following evaporator, where steam also is produced,
until reaching the final condenser where the steam is cooled by the incoming seawater or brackish water. The energy use for
MED of seawater is 6.5-11 kWh m-3 [DESWARE, 2014]. In very large desalination systems, MED may be competitive to
256 reverse-osmosis desalination,
S.A. Kalogirou and may
/ Progress be appropriate
in Energy forScience
and Combustion large-scale deployments
31 (2005) 242–281 of solar-powered desalination systems.

VACCUM

SEA–WATER

DISTILLATE
COLLECTORS

DEMISTER
SOLAR

BLOWDOWN

Figure 6: Design Fig.

for MSF desalination
6. Principle of operationsystem (from [Kalogirou,
of the multi-stage 2005])
flash (MSF) system.
In the MSF method, the chambers are evacuated to produce vapor. Either method can be nearly as efficient as reverse-
osmosisconsumption
the plant. Energy desalination,
is and together
usually are used
expressed in in approximately 40% of
nearly the saturation all large-scale
temperature at the distillation systems. The energy use for
maximum system
MSF distillation of seawater is 13.5-25.5 kWh
kW he/m3 [150]. m-3 The
pressure. [DESWARE, 2014],
water then enters the which is through
first stage far above
an the more efficient
implementations of RO and MED. orifice and in so doing has its pressure reduced. Since, the
5.1. The multi-stage flash (MSF) process water was at the saturation temperature for a higher
2.4 Vapor Compression (VP) Desalination pressure, it becomes superheated and flashes into steam.
The MSF process is composed of a series of elements The vapour produced passes through a wire mesh (demister)
In Vapor Compression (VP) desalination the saline
called stages. In each stage, condensing steam is used to
water feed is vaporized,droplets
to remove any entrained brine
and condensed with via mechanical or pressure
and thence into the
preheat the means.
seawaterThe energy
feed. use for VP desalination
By fractionating the overall of seawater
heat exchanger, kWh mit-3is[DESWARE,
is 7-12 where condensed and 2014]. VP desalination
drips into a is limited in
scale due to limits in the size and
temperature differential between the warm source and cost of large vapor chambers, so not discussed here in detail.
distillate tray. This process is repeated through the plant as
seawater into a large number
2.5 Solar Stills of stages, the system both brine and distillate streams flash as they enter
approaches Solar
ideal total
stillslatent
convertheattherecovery.
humidity Operation subsequent
in the airofinto fresh stages,solar
water, using which are at successively lower press-
energy.
this system requires pressure gradients in the plant. The ures. In MSF, the number of stages is not tied rigidly to the
principle of operation is shown in Fig. 6. Current PR required from the plant. In practice, the minimum must
commercial installations are designed with 10–30 stages be slightly greater than the PR, while the maximum is
(2 8C temperature drop per stage). imposed by the boiling-point elevation. The minimum
8
A practical cycle representing the MSF process is shown interstage temperature drop must exceed the boiling-point
in Fig. 7. The system is divided into heat-recovery and heat- elevation for flashing to occur at a finite rate. This is
rejection sections. Seawater is fed through the heat-rejection advantageous because as the number of stages is increased,
section, which rejects thermal energy from the plant and the terminal temperature difference over the heat exchangers
 • Techniques for solar stills are described in [Tygarinov, 1947], [Abualhamayel, 1997], [Bar, 2004], [Beckmann,
2005], [Beckman, 1999], [EL-Sharkawy, 2000], [Gad, 2001], [Habeebullah, 2009], [Kabeel, 2007], [Kobayashi,
1981], [Sofrata, 1981], [Sultan, 2004].
• In more advanced systems, sorbents (see [Aristov, 1999], [Gordeeva, 1998], [Hamed, 2000a], [Hamed, 2000b],
[Hamed, 2003], [Wang, 2007]) are used to facilitate the cycle of capturing the condensation, and then to releasing
the condensation.
• Reviews of solar still technology are given in [Bourouni, 2001], [Hamed, 2010], [Hamed, 2011], [Prakash, 2010],
[Roland, 2001], [Wahlgren, 2001].
• Experiments, demonstrations, performance analysis are described in [Al-hassan, 2009], [Al-Hallaj, 1998], [Al-
Karaghouli, 2004a], [Al-Karaghouli, 2004b], [Ben-Bacha, 2003], [Elsarrag, 2011], [Jacobs, 2008], [Kabeel, 2006],
[Khalil, 1993]. Modeling of solar stills is given in [Bacha, 1999], [Farid, 2002].

Unfortunately, current designs for solar stills do not scale well to large systems, and it remains a challenge to redesign them
for large scale solar-powered desalination system.

2.6 Electrodialysis: Another related membrane-base desalination process is known as Electrodialysis (ED) (see [Strathmann,
1992], [Strathmann, 2004], [Sata, 2004]. It works by setting an electrical potential difference between two ion-exchange
membranes in contact with the feed water, which causes the transfer of salt ions from the feed water through the membranes
(the negatively charged chlorine ions go through the membrane to a positively charged chamber and the positively charged
sodium ions go through the membrane to a negatively charged chamber). However, this process requires electrical power,
and hence is less efficient for use with solar concentrators that would have to generate electrical power from the heat energy
they harvest.

3. Solar Energy Technologies: Their Cost-Effectiveness, Energy-Efficiency, and Challenges

3.1 Solar Energy, the Underutilized Energy Resource

Although solar energy until recently has been considerably underutilized as an energy source, it is now emerging as one of
the most promising sustainable energy sources. According to [Pilkington, 1996], the entire world can theoretically be
supplied with its current needs for electricity from solar power stations covering only 1% of the semi-arid or arid lands on
earth. This may be an over estimate, and does not account for the limits of electrical power transport, but it does indicate
some of the potential of solar power.

Figure 7: World Insolation Map: (from https://www.altestore.com/howto/solar-insolation-map-world-a43/)

Solar irradiation is the radiation from the sun. Solar Insolation is a measure of incident solar irradiation energy received on a
given surface area over a given time. It is convenient that many of the areas of the world with most need for desalination have
an abundance of solar energy. Many of the arid areas of the world are ideally suited for solar energy harvesting; for example
9
each square meter of land in many sections of the Middle East and North Africa receive 5 to 7 kWh of solar insolation each
solar day. By most estimates, these regions yearly receive approx. 1.7-2.2 MWh/m2 per year (this is megawatt hours of solar
power available per square meter per year).

Unfortunately, it has been estimated [Delyannis, 2003] that only approximately 0.02% of desalination capacity is using solar
power or any other renewable power source.
3.2 Solar Power systems

Here we give a brief overview of Solar Power systems to provide the context and motivation for solar-powered desalination.
We consider two major classes of solar power systems:
(1) Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, which collect solar power and transform this energy into electrical power (see
[Chaabane, 2013]). The transformation into electrical energy via conventional steam turbines entails an approximately 45%
efficiency loss.
(2) Solar thermal systems, which collect solar power and transfer this to heat energy (perhaps the most extensive surveys on
solar thermal systems is [NREL, 2003], and more recent reviews include [Charles, 2005] and [Morin, 2012])

We will argue that solar thermal systems are better suited for application to power desalination, in part because most
desalination systems can directly utilize thermal energy with little or no transformation into electrical energy.
3.2a Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Systems
Solar photovoltaic (PV) plants make use of photovoltaic (PV) cells to generate electricity. Many of the most efficient PV
plants make use of concentrated solar radiation primarily in the ultraviolet (UV) and visual (VIS) ranges.
High-performance PV arrays (used for example by satellites and other high-value systems) are currently relatively costly per
square meter compared to solar thermal systems. Also, compared to solar thermal systems, PV plants generally degrade more
rapidly, making them at this time a significantly less preferable choice for large-scale solar power systems than solar-thermal
plants.
In certain circumstances PV plants have distinct advantages, such as their capability to provide electrical power in very
remote areas far from conventional electrical power sources, and their potential portability.
There are number of negative issues associated with PV plants
(i) A major issue is their cost-effectiveness: The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the US Dept. of Energy
(DOE) has made a number of cost analyses of PV systems, and concluded that with current PV technology, it was not
feasible to ever get a payback period for construction and repair cost within the PV unit’s expected functional lifetime. This
is because currently operating PV systems produce electricity at a cost (including finance costs for construction and repair) of
roughly $0.12/ kWh, which is two to three times of the current US commercial market price of electricity (per kWh). That
implies that a PV system never produces enough electrical energy (priced at competitive commercial rates) to pay for both
their initial construction and subsequent repair. This also implies that the use of PV system to power desalination would be
more costly that the use of a conventional electrical source.
(ii) Another major issue, particularly with respect for use of PV to power desalination, is the issue of energy storage: The
use of batteries significantly further degrades the cost-effectiveness of PV plants.
Certain Photovoltaic (PV) systems known as concentrating PV systems are designed to take concentrated solar energy that is
concentrated by a solar concentrating system (see below), and so potentially their cost per meter of incoming solar energy is
reduced, but in addition to the issue of energy storage, these generally have even shorter life periods non-concentrating PV
systems before they significantly degrade.
3.2b Solar Concentrating Systems
A solar concentrating system concentrates solar irradiance for conversion into other forms of usable energy; it directs solar
irradiance from a relatively large collection field and concentrates it to a smaller receiver area. The concentration ratio is the
ratio of the area of the collection field to the receiver area.
A concentrating solar energy plant is a solar plant composed of two major parts: a solar concentrating system, and a power-
block, which converts concentrated solar radiation to energy and/or useful products.
Most solar concentrating systems are used for a solar-thermal-electrical power systems, which are power systems that collect
and concentrate solar thermal energy, and then convert the thermal energy to electrical energy via steam turbines.
Concentrated solar thermal-electrical plants are solar power plants that make use of solar radiation (primarily in the infrared
(IR) range) to generate electricity. Reviews of solar-thermal technology are given in [Becker, 2000], [Elsayed, 1994],
[Jackson, 2008], [Morin, 2012], [NREL, 1994], [NREL, 2003], [Pilkington, 1996], [Pitz-Paal, 2012], [Reddy, 1987],
10
 served near the center of each solar field.
sun on a single axis to perform. Figure 3 shows an example of a
parabolic trough collector and illustrates how the direct beam
component of sunlight reflects back to the receiver located at the
million !USD" grant for a parabolic trough project in Rajasthan, focus of the parabolic mirrors.
India. Subsequently, after an in-depth study to evaluate the future The solar field’s basic component is the solar collector assem-
cost reduction potential of parabolic trough technology #6$, the bly !SCA". Each SCA is an independently tracking group of para-
GEF approved three additional $50 million grants for parabolic bolic trough solar collectors made up of parabolic reflectors !mir-
trough type technologies in Morocco, Egypt, and Mexico. In ad- rors"; the metal support structure; the receiver tubes; and the
dition, interest in concentrating solar power plants is building in tracking system that includes the drive, sensors, and controls. The
[Sargent, 2003], [Thirugnanasambandam, 2010], [Xi, 2012] ([NREL, 2003] provides one of the most extensive surveys, but
Europe because of rising fuel prices and the carbon dioxide (CO2 ) solar field in a parabolic trough power plant is made up of hun-
mitigation[Morin,
concerns2012] is morefrom
that stemmed current).
world climate conferences dreds, and potentially thousands, of SCAs. All these components
held in the last few years. Opportunities
In contrast, we will mostly discuss in southern
the useEuropean
of solar concentrating systems
are in continuous instead for
development, powering
aiming desalination.
at further Unfortunately, it
cost reductions
countries such as Spain, Italy #7$, and Greece are driving much of to enhance market opportunities.
has been estimated [Delyannis, 2003] that only
the interest. Recently, energy shortages and price volatility in the
approximately 0.02% of desalination capacity is using solar power or any
other States
western United renewable
have power source.
also helped to boost commercial in- Support Structure. The Luz LS-3 collector was the final
terest in the technology. concentrator design used at the newest SEGS plants !SEGS VII–
[Gadhamshetty, 2014] and [Gude, 2015] have discussed the use of thermal energy storage for solar concentrating systems
In 1998, an international workshop on parabolic trough technol- IX". A variation of the LS-3, which allows the collector to be tilted
powering desalination systems.
ogy led to the development of a parabolic trough technology road- a few degrees, is used for the direct-steam generation test at the
map #8$. The
3.2croadmap identifiedlinear
Solar troughs, technology development
Fresnel PSA.
neces- and
concentrators Although
solar towersthe operational experience of the LS-3 collector
sary to reduce cost or improve reliability and performance of has been excellent !high tracking availability", the thermal perfor-
Most of the prior designs for solar concentrating systems in current use make use of solar troughs, linear Fresnel
concentrators or solar towers:

Figure 8: Parabolic solar trough

Fig. 3 concentrator (fromcollector
Parabolic trough [Darwish,„source:
2013])
PSA…

Journal of Solar Energy Engineering MAY 2002, Vol. 124 Õ 111

wnloaded 26 Feb 2008 to 129.74.250.197. Redistribution subject to ASME license or copyright; see http://www.asme.org/terms/Terms_Use.cfm

Figure
Fig. 1 9: Flow Schematic
Process of parabolic
flow schematic solarparabolic
of large-scale trough concentrator (fromplant
trough solar power „Flabeg
[Price, 2002])
Solar International…

The principal solar trough concentrators are:

facilities under the U.S. Federal Public Utility Regulatory Policy
Act !PURPA", Luz was able to sign a number of standard offer
contracts with SCE that led to the development of the SEGS III
through SEGS IX projects. Initially, PURPA limited the plants to
30 MW in size; this limit was later raised to 80 MW. In total, nine
fields with rows of parabolic trough collectors are readily appar-
11
ent. The five 30-MW power plants can be observed near the center
of each solar field.
Since the demise of Luz, a number of events and R&D efforts
have helped resurrect interest in parabolic trough technology. In
 • parabolic solar trough concentrators (see [Becker, 2000], [Elsayed, 1994], [Fernández-García, 2010], [Giostri,
2002], [Jackson, 2008], [NREL, 2003], [NREL, 2004], [Price, 2002], [Price, 2003], [Pilkington, 1996], [Reddy,
1987], and [Sargent, 2003]) and a
• linear Fresnel concentrators (see [Morin, 2012] [Xie, 2011).
These are similar: they both consist of a long reflector, which acts as the only concentrator, aligned on a north-south axis with
a collector tube running along its length. In a parabolic solar trough concentrator, the cross-section of the reflector is
parabolic, whereas in a linear Fresnel concentrator the reflector has Fresnel shape (it is a continuous surface of a parabolic
cross-section of the same curvature, with stepwise discontinuities between them). One advantage of these systems is the
tracking is primarily only in one dimension. The reflector is rotated to track the sun’s movement, and its reflected solar
energy is concentrated along a focal line and is captured by its receiver tube, containing a heat absorbing fluid that absorbs
the concentrated heat. These systems generally provide a solar concentration ratio that is at most 60:1 to 80:1, which is
somewhat of a disadvantage for electrical generation (which is most efficient at the highest thermal concentration ratios)
compared to Solar Tower and Dish Designs that generally provide a concentration ratio of 100:1 or higher. However, such a
high solar concentration ratio is not a critical issue for powering desalination via heat or pressure, as we discuss below.
• Solar Tower Designs consist of multiple heliostats, which are moving mirrors that track and concentrate the solar energy
so as to continuously focus and concentrate the incoming solar energy upon a centralized collector tower.
• Solar Dish Designs (see [Kongtragool, 2003]) utilize parabolic reflectors that concentrate the solar energy to a focus at a
Stirling engine that uses the concentrated solar thermal energy to expand and contract a fluid.
3.3 Cost-Effectiveness of Solar Concentrators: The primary concentrators of a solar concentrator system are those parts
that first receive the solar irradiation, and first concentrate it. The majority of the surface area and materials comprising a
solar concentrator are generally in its primary concentrators. Since the primary concentrators are the parts that collect the
solar energy directly, they are far the largest part of any solar concentrating system, and hence the properties of the primary
concentrator are key the cost-effectiveness and durability of the solar concentrating systems. It is very important that the
primary concentrator be constructed of materials that are not costly. Also, the primary concentrator needs to be very durable
and not exposed to horizontal winds if possible. In most designs, the primary concentrator is required to move or track with
the movement of the sun.
While solar concentrating systems are a well developed technology, the have a number of technical challenges, some of
which increase their cost and limit their durability:
• They require support structures for their primary concentrators that are exposed to the weather.
• Their primary concentrators need to be actively mechanically moved over each day to track the movement of the sun.
• The materials composing the primary concentrators need to be relatively high-cost material that is lightweight enough
to be mechanically moved each day and yet strong enough to withstand high winds. In particular, for these prior solar
concentrating systems it is not feasible to use very low-cost material for the primary concentrator such as concrete due to
its high weight.

Studies of Cost-Performance Analysis of Prior Concentrating Solar Concentrating Systems: A report [NREL, 2003] of the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the US Dept. of Energy (DOE) made a detailed amortized cost analysis of these
current solar concentrating systems when used for electrical generation, which implies a payback period (taking into account
costs for construction, finance, and repair) of roughly 15 to 25 years. Similar payback period estimates were subsequently
made in [Charles, 2005] for solar-thermal systems (and even higher estimates for payback period can be inferred from the
cost and performance [Chaabane, 2013] for concentrating solar photovoltaic systems).
4 Applications of Solar Technologies to Power Desalination
4.1 Solar-Thermal Desalination Systems
Concentrated solar thermal-desalination plants are solar power plants that make use of solar radiation primarily in the
infrared (IR) range to power the desalination of salt water to fresh water. The most modern solar-thermal desalination
systems generally produce concentrated heat energy, which is used to create pressurized steam, which is used to power
reverse osmosis desalination systems. This is the process our proposed solar thermal-desalination system will use.
The use of concentrated solar thermal-desalination plants provides an exciting opportunity to construct in future much larger
and more efficient desalination plants. Hence the design of energy-efficient, low-cost solar concentrating systems is of
potentially critical importance.

Solar-powered desalination is described in the following: [Qiblawey, 2008], [Sharon, 2015], [Shatat, 2013]

12
 • Reviews of Solar-powered desalination are given in [Delyannis, 1987], [Mu l̈ ler-Holst, 1998], [Goosena, 2000],
[Delyannis, 2000], [Garcia-Rodriguez, 2002], [Delyannis, 2003], [Kalogirou, 2005], [Mathioulakis, 2007],
[Schillings, 2007], [Delgado-Torres, 2007a], [Delgado-Torres, 2007d], [Eltawil, 2008], [Qiblawey, 2008], [Eltawil,
2009], [Gude, 2010], [Mathioulakis, 2007], [Gude, 2010a], [Gude, 2010b], [MED-CSD, 2010], [MED-CSD, 2010],
[Sethi, 2012], and [Li, 2013].

• PV-powered desalination is described in [Alawaji, 1995], [Gwillim, 1996], [Hasnain, 1998], [Thomson, 2003],
[Ghermandi, 2009], [Al-Karaghouli, 2010], [Al-Karaghouli, 2011], [Poovanaesvaran, 2011], [Peterson, 2012].

• Solar-concentrator-powered desalination is described in [El-Nashar, 1992], [Blanco, 2003], [Chafik, 2003],

[Chaouchi, 2007], [Scrivani, 2007], and [Bardi, 2008].
• Studies of desalination systems in Saudi Arabia and their feasibility for solar powering these plants are given in [Al-
Sahlawi, 1999], [Al-Karaghouli, 2004, 2010, 2011], [Kalogirou, 2005], [Alawaji, 2007], [l-Dessouki, 2008],
[Eltawil, 2008, 2009], and [Ghermandi, 2009]. A study of an experimental implementation of a solar-concentrator-
powered desalination system in Saudi Arabia is given in [l-Harbi, 2011].
4.2 Solar-Thermal to Steam Pressurization Technology
The power block of a solar energy system converts concentrated solar energy into forms of usable energy, which may include
electrical energy, but it the context of this paper is pressurization, providing energy for desalination of seawater or brackish
water (conversion to pure water). In the context of this paper work, where the goal is solar desalination, the power block
provides for heat energy and/or pressurization.
Steam pressurization systems using heat energy: The technology for producing pressurization from heat energy is very well
established due to their use many prior industrial applications. For example, in a steam engine, the pressure vessel
[Steingress, 2003] of the steam engine boiler is heated from externally applied heat energy and as a consequence, the steam
within the pressure vessel is pressurized (in the case of a steam engine, this pressurized steam is subsequently released to
generate mechanical energy). As another example, for solar-thermal-electrical generators, the pressure vessel is heated from
heat energy obtained from a solar concentrator, and the resulting pressurized steam is harnessed to drive a steam turbine
electrical generator (note that there can be very high pressure requirements to drive high-performance steam turbine electrical
generators, and so they often operate as ultra-pressurization systems, where the entire pressurization cycle is in the steam
state, rather than water to steam). Both of these example steam pressurization systems also include a cooling cycle to cool
and return the steam.
In contrast, for solar-desalination applications of interest here, the pressurization to drive desalination can make use of a
pressure vessel that is heated using heat energy obtained from a solar concentrator; the pressurized steam is then released to
drive the (reverse osmosis) desalination process. Again, system also needs to include a cooling cycle to cool and return the
steam.
As noted above, saltwater reverse osmosis desalination requires only moderate pressure of approximately 55 bar, and such
use of conventional heated pressure vessels can be used to achieve this pressure (without necessary needing ultra-
pressurization technology).
Lower Solar Concentration Ratios needed for solar-desalination applications: Since the application of solar-desalination
requires only moderate pressure of approximately 55 bar to drive the reverse-osmosis process, and so the solar concentrator
needs a considerably lower concentration ratio of in the range of approximately 15:1 to 20:1. It is important to note that this
solar concentration ratio is much less than needed for solar-thermal-electrical applications (which use very high solar
concentration ratios of approx. 60:1 to 75:1 to produce very highly pressurized steam to drive high performance steam
turbines).
5.3 The Attractive Opportunity of Using Solar Energy to Power Reverse Osmosis Filtration Pressurization
Recall from section 2.2a that approx. 2.5-5 kWh m-3 is required for the most efficient RO distillation systems. Recall that the
other counties of the Middle East and North Africa receive approx. 2 MWh/m2 insolation per year. A system for converting
this solar energy to pressurization energy, even with relatively low conversion efficiency of say 25%, would provide
approximately 0.5 MWh/m2 pressurization energy per year, which would result in the production of approximately 250 m3 of
desalinated water per m2 of solar collection area per year if the most efficient methods (requiring as low as 2.5kWh m-3 for
RO desalination)
Hence a mega-size solar-desalination system with solar collection area of area 1,000 m x 1,000 m =1,000,000 m2 and
efficiency of 25% would provide the production of approx. 250,000,000 m3 of desalinated water of solar collection area per
year without expenditure of nonrenewable energy sources.

13
Cultivation of crops such as wheat requires an annual water budget of approx. 60 cm of water per year, which is a volume of
0.6 m3 water per m2 of land area per year. This implies that only a small proportion 0.6/250 = 0.24% of the land area needs
to be devoted to harvesting solar energy to be able to convert the land to productive croplands.

5. Conclusions and Technical Challenges to Solar-Powered Desalination

5.1 Conclusions
In this paper we compared the cost-effectiveness, energy-efficiency, and other relevant quantities of these potential solar-
desalination systems, and concluded that the direct solar-desalination systems using solar-thermal collectors appear to be
most attractive for highly energy-efficient solar-desalination systems, although there are significant technical challenges
remaining. Further, we overviewed the economics and practical issues associated with employing cost-effective solar-
desalination systems to provide for economic water sources for urban and also agricultural areas. We considered factors that
have significant impact to these solar-desalination systems: including location, climate, and access to ocean water or
brackish water sources, as well as land-use and ecological issues. We observe that the most favorable locations are those with
high solar irradiance, lack of fresh water but access to large brackish water sources and/or seawater. The most favorable
locations appear to include considerable sections of North and East Africa, the Middle East, Southern Europe, Western South
America, Australia, Northern Mexico, and South-West USA; each has particular issues and challenges unique to their
location. Nevertheless, we conclude that the development of cost-effective and energy-efficient solar-desalination systems
may well be key to a future “terraforming” of otherwise desert and near-desert regions of the world, providing a “greening”
of these regions.
5.2 Technical Challenges to Solar-Powered Desalination

Challenges: There are a number of challenges for the widespread use of solar systems to power desalination:

(a) Need to tailor solar power technologies to powering desalination:

The diverse desalination systems described in section 3 have various needs to power them ranging from purely pressure,
purely heat, or combinations of these over various ranges. The existing solar systems have primarily been designed for use
with steam-turbine electrical generation rather than for desalination systems. Hence the existing solar systems need to be
redesigned for the particular desalination system to be powered. For example, photovoltaic (PV) systems by definition
convert solar power to electrical energy. Also, solar-thermal systems generally harvest heat energy, and convert this heat
energy to electrical energy via steam turbines, and this conversion electrical energy entails an approximately 40% loss.
However, many desalination systems can be powered by pressure or heat energy directly, without major use of electrical
energy. As a result, there are considerable technical challenges to adapting solar energy systems to power desalination
systems. We are not aware of detailed amortized cost analysis for solar concentrating systems when used for powering
desalination, and this needs to be done.
(b) Need to tailor solar power and desalination technologies to survive harsh environments: For deployment in many
arid areas these prior solar concentrating and desalination systems need to withstand many difficult environmental conditions
that are especially challenging: these include high temperatures, high winds and sand storms. The solar concentrating systems
developed in the US and Europe were generally not designed for the high winds and sand storms of desert regions in North
Africa and the Middle East, and hence would require higher construction and/or repair costs. The deployment of Solar-
Powered Desalination systems in remote arid regions entails some considerable risk, requiring considerable further R&D.
(c) Need to avoid hyperbole and face the challenges: Another challenge to the proper development of cost-effective and
energy-efficient Solar-Powered Desalination systems is not so much technical as it is intellectual. The issue is that promoters
(e.g., some private solar power corporations) of solar-technologies have sometimes optimistically overstated the efficiencies
and cost-efficiency of solar technologies, and also of solar-powered desalination systems. As a result, there is an under-
appreciation of the technical challenges involved to insure the systems are cost-effective and energy-efficient. Evidence of
this disconnect is the deployment of some large systems of desalination systems powered by PV systems, which are neither
cost-efficient nor energy-efficient. To its credit, the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) of the US Department of
Energy (DOE) has been quite forthright on cost and energy-efficiency analysis of solar-powered systems.

(d) Need for better determination of saline and brackish water reserves: Finally, although there is excellent knowledge
of the geographical location in the world with high solar insolation, desalination systems also require adequate sources of
seawater, or better still brackish water with a lower saline content. [Garcia-Rodriguez, 2002] has estimated the energy costs
of conventional desalination of seawater, where as desalination of brackish water entails considerably lower energy cost for
desalination. Hence, there is a need for more knowledge of brackish water reserves; what is needed is a detailed world map of
brackish water reserves. Unfortunately, since certain brackish water reserves can also be associated (via salt domes and other

14
geological features) with petroleum and natural gas reserves, the maps of brackish water reserves are sometimes made
proprietary.

5.3 Acknowledgements
This work was supported by NSF grants NSF Grants CCF-1217457, CCF-1320360 and CCF-1617791.

15
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