Design of an autarkic water and energy supply driven by renewable energy using commercially available components Original Research Article

Around the world there are a lot of remote coastal areas suffering from natural drinking water resources and a lack of energy. These locations ask for new innovations for an environmentally friendly solution represented by the combination of RO desalination plants and renewable energy sources like wind. But how to combine a desalination plant with fluctuating energy source like wind? How to “store” energy? Are the components already applied in practice and commercially available? What about the costs? The R&D department of ENERCON did a lot of work in this field and brings the 3 important components together: wind energy converters (WEC), RO desalination plants and “stand-alone” systems for energy management. Related to wind energy, the ENERCON WECs are well known for their performance and quality. The R&D department also developed new innovations in the design of RO desalination plants: The ENERCON Energy Recovery System for very low energy consumption, high flexibility, efficient combination with fluctuating energy sources and no use of chemicals. In belongings to the third important field, energy storing and stand alone systems ENERCON developed a system which provides 100% energy supply by wind energy all over the year on the island Utsira in Norway for 2 years now. Aiming at the goal of sustainable development these systems fulfil all requirements for environmentally friendly and economic operation: no use of fossil fuels and therefore no CO2 emissions/no use of chemicals and therefore no negative impact to the marine environment.