Techno-Economic Feasibility of Reverse Osmosis Desalination Scale Coupled with Solar Energy: Case of Algeria

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Brackish water and seawater desalination have become important freshwater sources in arid and semi-arid regions suffering from water scarcity. Fortunately, the availability of solar energy provides an excellent opportunity to replace conventional energy with renewable energy for desalination system power. However, technical and economic feasibility studies must be carried out according to the characteristics of each region to assess its economic feasibility. This study assessed the techno-economic feasibility of a solar-powered desalination small-scale BWRO with a capacity of 2.016 m³/day. Two scenarios were proposed: a desalination station powered by a public network without a solar energy system (On-Grid) and a second powered by photovoltaic panels (Off-Grid). The result shows that the water production cost of the Off-Grid system (0.33 $/m³) was about 1.14 times lower than the water production cost of the On-Grid system (0.38 $/m³). The economic analysis result shows that the reverse osmosis desalination system coupled with a photovoltaic system (Off-Grid) is an economically suitable option for satisfying the increasing freshwater product demand compared to the grid-powered system (On-Grid), especially in arid areas.