Feasibility study on wind-powered desalination

With the global demand for water rising, along with the ever-increasing scarcity of supply, desalination has been seen as a key proponent to meet the future challenges of fresh water. However, desalination uses significant amounts of energy, today mostly from fossil fuels. It is therefore favourable to rely on renewable energies, specifically the wind due to its low-cost and technological maturity, to power desalination systems. To prove the technical feasibility of wind-powered desalination with both reverse osmosis and mechanical vapour compression, physics-based system models have been developed and the technical feasibility of using wind as the power source for desalination has been confirmed. The economics of wind-powered desalination are also favourable. The costs are in line with what is expected for a conventional desalination system, proving to be particularly cost-competitive in areas with good wind resources that have high costs of energy. It can be concluded that wind-powered desalination can be competitive with other desalination systems, providing safe and clean drinking water efficiently in an environmentally responsible manner.