Carbon-Constrained and Cost Optimal Hybrid Wind-Based System for Sustainable Water Desalination

Abstract

Seawater desalination is one of the prominent solutions to cope with the water crisis. Suppling demanded energy and high investment and operation costs have been the most critical challenges facing the sustainable development of these plants. Previous studies have shown that renewable resources can be used as an alternative for sustainable desalination. Wind energy is a renewable resource with good potential, especially in coastal areas with a severe water crisis. In previous studies of wind-powered desalination units, typical values have been used for turbines, and also, the desalination unit's capacity is considered equal to the peak water demand. In this paper, a new optimization model for wind-powered desalination is presented wherein the optimal number of turbines will be defined based on the technical specifications of different commercially available turbine types. Also, simultaneous selection of several different turbines is modeled and optimized. The proposed mathematical model is implemented on a test case to evaluate its effectiveness. The simulation results show the proposed model's functionality to obtain optimal results while considering available commercial turbine types. The study demonstrates a 2.38 to 35.28 reduction in the net planning cost resulting from multiple turbine technology selections and optimization concerning the various single turbine installation cases.