Prospect of utilization of solar energy in SWCC existing multi-effect desalination satellite plants

The shortage of drinking water source limits the socio-economic development of many areas of the world. Saudi Arabia has very limited resources in fresh water source and around 40%-50% of portable water in Saudi Arabia is produced by desalination technology which depends on using fossil energy. As the high cost of water and electricity production reflects depleting oil resources of the country which is non-renewable, solar energy would be a good alternative since Saudi Arabia has abundant free solar energy. This study investigates the feasibility of using concentrated solar power system (CSP) for thermal desalination. The study is conducted for CSP coupled with multi-effect desalination with thermal vapor compressor existed in western province Saudi Arabia in five locations with various DNI, for two cases, without storage and with 16 h storage. The total saving from coupling solar collectors to all five plants shows around 20.45 million s/y. Using of solar energy can reduce carbon dioxide emission to the environment by 420 thousand ton/y for all selected plants.