Hybrid wind/PV and conventional power for desalination in Libya—GECOLʹs facility for medium and small scale research at Ras Ejder Original Research Article

GECOL and a consulting consortium of experts from ZSW, DEWI and LI are managing the implementation of an experimental research facility for Sea Water Reverse Osmosis desalination powered from Renewable Energy Sources (SWRO+RES) at Libyaʹs coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The nominal production of the plant will be 300 m3/d for the supply of a village with potable water. Both wind energy conversion (WEC) and photovoltaic power generation (PV) will be integrated into a grid connected power supply for a Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination plant with power recovery by pressure exchange. The facility design is flexible for the integration of Diesel generator and electrochemical storage as power supply alternatives as well as brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO). The wide range of feasible plant configurations will allow for extension of the scope of research to off-grid stand alone performance analysis of such hybrid systems. The expected nominal power load for the operation of the RO desalination system is 60 kW (net power after recovery), the solar PV system is designed for 50 kWpeak, and the WEC for 275 kW nominal output. The WEC configuration aims at more than 80% reduction of the annual grid power consumption. This is predicted to increase the Levelised Water Cost (LWC) by not more than 45% compared to the grid-power-only solution with its very low electricity cost of 3.2 €¢/kWh.