Concentrating Solar Power and Desalination

Kurzfassung

The increasing water demand in MENA countries will cause local severe water shortages. Efficiency enhancement in water distribution and use will be requested in order to minimize the water deficit. Beyond that, additional new freshwater sources like desalination should be activated as soon as possible. However, desalination plants are characterized by high energy consumption and negative environmental impacts. On the other hand, most water scarce areas are typically sunny regions. This is not surprising, since the high solar irradiation is among the causes of water scarcity. Solar energy and in particular CSP -with the option of thermal storage and hybrid operation- is a state of the art technology that can be coupled to desalination in order to produce secure and sustainable water and power. Different possible CSP and desalination configurations are analysed and discussed.