Abstract: The water scarcity is a common situation in many Mediterranean countries. Desalination by REs can be an interesting solution for isolated or high cost water areas. Within this framework, the ADIRA1 project aims the development of autonomous desalination systems in 11 selected sites of those areas in five target Mediterranean countries (Morocco, Cyprus, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan) in order to provide them with fresh water. The identification of the regions becomes a necessary first step to accomplish this objective as a result of the project. A proper selection of regions and sites will influence directly the results and subsequent impacts of the pilot installations.
After a collection process consisting of acquiring information and filling in databases, target regions are selected following some criteria, mainly: scarcity of fresh water sources, weakness or inexistence of electrical grid connection and existence of renewable energy potential. A final report summarizes the situation of the region in every aspect relevant to the achievement of the purposes: water reality (sources and demands), energy reality (RE sources), socio-economic situation, etc. A selection of the most relevant information of that report is presented in this paper,
making possible a fast and updated idea of the water situation in the target countries of the ADIRA project.
Abstract: This paper describes the design and operational strategies of an ambitious prototype for a desalination system powered exclusively by wind energy. The system, installed on the island of Gran Canaria, was designed with several objectives in mind: (a) to determine experimentally the feasibility of the stand-alone operation of wind farms isolated horn the conventional power grids and supplying energy for a number of desalination techniques (reverse osmosis, electrodialysis reversal and vacuum vapor compression; (b) to verify the operational feasibility ofthe various desalination techniques when the energy source driving the system is an intermittent one; and (c) to analyze the influence that a variety of operational strategies have on the volume and quality of the desalinated water produced and on the useful working life of the main components of the desalination plants. The first of these three questions has been resolved with the
feasibility of such stand-alone systems now clearly demonstrated. As for the second question, initial tests would seem so far to indicate that the reverse osmosis technique is the most suitable for use in stand-alone wind-powered desalination systems. The results that are still to come from the remaining studies will be of vital importance for regions like the Canary Islands, which suffer from a scarcity of potable water, lack conventional energy sources, but do have at their
disposal wind energy resources.
Abstract: This paper presents an operational analysis of the prototype of an innovative fully autonomous wind powered desalination system. The system consists of a wind farm, made up of two wind turbines and a ï¬ywheel, which operates in isolation from the conventional power grids and which supplies the energy needs of a group of eight reverse osmosis (RO) modules throughout the complete desalination process (from the pumping of sea water to the storage of the product water), as well as the energy requirements of the control subsystems. The analysis of the electrical and hydraulic results obtained from this prototype, installed on the island of Gran Canaria in the Canarian Archipelago, shows the technical feasibility of the system design and the automatic operational strategy programmed for it. Amongst other tasks, the automatic operational strategy controls the number of RO plants that have to be connected or disconnected at any given moment in order to match the variable wind energy supply. The results obtained thus far have not revealed any signiï¬cant variation in the level of quality or average volume of the product water, nor any physical deterioration to the main components of the system as a result of the start-ups and shut-downs required as a result of the variations in the wind energy supply or oscillations of the electrical parameters of voltage and frequency. In conclusion, the system under analysis can be applied to sea water desalination, both on a small and large scale, in coastal regions with a
scarcity of water for domestic and/or agricultural use but with wind energy resources.
Abstract: The Seawater Desalination by an Autonomous Wind Energy System (SDAWES) project was developed to produce a natural scarce resource (fresh water) by the use of a natural, renewable resource (wind energy). The basic concept consists in the connection of three kinds of desalination systems: reverse osmosis, vacuum vapour compression and reversible electrodialysis to a stand-alone wind energy system to produce fresh water from seawater on a significant scale (total nominal water production: 440 m3/d). The main objectives of the project were to identify the best desalination system for connection to a stand-alone wind farm and to assess the influence of the variations of wind energy on the operation of the desalination plants and on the quality of the water produced. This is a project where several lessons were learnt after two yearsâ testing experience. This paper presents the main problems detected during that period and the experimented proposed solutions.
