Energy storage options for large-scale PV-RO desalination plants

Desalination is a class of processes to produce freshwater from saline waters and is considered a concrete option to cope with the scarcity of natural water resources. Nevertheless, desalination is an energy-intensive process, and it is essential to ensure it uses renewable energy sources to make it sustainable for a long period. This chapter proposes an approach to the large-scale screening of desalination driven by renewable energy based on indicators of feasibility and costs, allowing the comparison of different energy storage options (electric grid, batteries, and water reservoirs) necessary to deal with the intermittency of renewable production. A case study over the extended Mediterranean region is presented, considering reverse osmosis completely driven by photovoltaic energy over a large number of potential desalination sites, but the procedure can be readily extended to other technological and geographical contexts.

GANORA Daniele;  PISTOCCHI Alberto; 

2026-01-12

Elsevier

JRC124157

978-0-12-821920-1,   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/edited-volume/9780128219201/energy-storage-for-multigeneration,    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/chapter/edited-volume/pii/B9780128219201000042,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC124157,   

10.1016/C2019-0-03499-1 (online),