Design of Solar Powered Desalination System and Applications in a Luxurious Beach Resort

The efficacy of seawater desalination has a profound impact in terms of reducing the water demand-supply gap especially in dry and arid countries. In UAE, 90% of the country’s water supply relies solely on desalinated water where a high share of the desalination plant’s output is aimed towards water supply for residential buildings. The hospitality sector consumes 50% more than the global average. The purpose of this paper is to determine the technical and economic viability for the integration of a concentrated photovoltaic thermal (CPV/T) system with a hybrid reverse osmosis (RO) and multi effect desalination (MED) plant. The system was designed to meet the water demand of a luxurious beach resort located in Fujairah. The resort accommodates about 110 occupancies per day. The estimated water consumption is 51m3/hr. The proposed system was analyzed with the aid of numerical simulation and reverse engineering calculations. The capacity of the CPV/T module, which represents the electrical and thermal energy output supplied to the RO and MED plant was determined using TRNSYS software. The results showed an efficient solar system providing electricity of 3500 kWh/year and thermal energy of 14,100 kWh/year, that is required to meet the water consumption of the hotel. In addition, the proposed system proved to be economically feasible, achieving a payback period of 3.6 years under an average lifetime of 20 years.