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2011
Conference Paper
Titel
Experiences with a PV-Driven Seawater Desalination System Using an Operating Control Strategy for Operation Without Batteries
Abstract
Availability of drinking water and fresh water for irrigation is going to be more critical for many arid regions in the world. In rural areas suffering from water scarcity and insufficient infrastructure, decentralized autonomous seawater desalination systems could be a sustainable solution for fresh water production. Autonomy could be achieved through coupling RO desalination with PV especially because the need for seawater desalination often coincides with regions receiving large amounts of solar irradiation. Such autonomous solar driven desalination system for rural areas needs to be cost effective and requiring low maintenance. One way to achieve this is through reducing or eliminating the need for energy storage devices while producing as much water as possible during sunshine hours without losses. A photovoltaic reverse osmosis system without energy storage has to be tracked to the solar power offered. This results in an intermittent and dynamic operation, which requires sophisticated operating control strategies. A photovoltaic driven reverse osmosis desalination system (PV-RO) that meets these requirements was developed and realized at Fraunhofer ISE.