Concept for optimization and simulation of renewable energy parks with desalination

Abstract

– This paper is about the concept of the combination of renewable energy parks and water desalination. During the energy production a lot of waste heat is produced which is in the majority of cases unused. The needed (waste) heat for the water desalination unit can be generated with biomass power plants, geo thermal or solar power. So the idea is to use this unused energy to convert saltwater into freshwater. This water can be used to irrigate fields or to produce common products. The advantage is that the produced water and energy can be used independent from each other. The current project is about the optimization between the water desalination unit from the company Terrawater [5] and the produced waste heat from a renewable energy source. At first there will be coded a simulation programme for a physical – mathematical model. Furthermore a control programme will be written which works together with the simulation programme to control the heat flow volume from the power plant or heat generator to the desalination unit to get the best performance and a best amount of freshwater. During the simulation process a lot of different aspects have to be regarded and they have to be included in the control programme.