Harnessing solar and wind power for sustainable seawater desalination: A multi-criteria geospatial suitability analysis

Kotb M. Kotb, Mohamed R. Elkadeem, Swellam W. Sharshir, Mohammad A. Abido, Mamoun M. Elsayed, Mohamed O. Abu Ghazala and Ali Younes

Renewable Energy, 2024, vol. 222, issue C

Abstract: Water and energy sustainability are major concerns of the world's nations at present. This research introduces a geographical decision-making model for strategically selecting optimal locations for seawater reverse-osmosis desalination plants (SWRODPs). Furthermore, it assesses the best electrification approach, considering onshore wind turbine (WT) or solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants. A representative case-study of the Egyptian Red Sea Coast Region (ERSCR) is considered to validate the proposed model. The study delineates nineteen assessment criteria for building an informed selection of SWRODPs' potential locations. Seven experts with at least ten years of expertise in desalination and renewable technologies were selected to obtain accurate assessment criteria that imitate the real-life selection process. The group best-worth method (GBWM) was employed to ascertain optimal weights for the geospatial model criteria. The findings indicate that a mere 6.11 % of the total land area is deemed suitable, with the remaining 93.89 % classified as restricted. The suitable area is divided into different suitability classes in which about 65.85 % of the suitable area is found good for establishing the SWRODPs, while about 23.65 % of suitable land is found of moderate suitability. Besides, about 9.21 % and 0.03 % of suitable lands are considered very good and excellent suitability for implementing SWRODPs' projects. Moreover, the analysis pinpointed 8 % of the ERSCR (∼12,810 km2) as a highly suitable area for PV installation, predominantly within Qusir, Ras Sidr, Hurghada, and Ataqa districts. Concurrently, a scant 0.15 % (∼244 km2) is optimal for WT in the Qusir district. Further, the results offer proposals to the authorities and energy investors with about 50,200 km2 and 39,858 km2 of the ERSCR suitable for establishing SWRODPs powered by PV and WT, respectively. Overall, the research findings are anticipated to bolster the UN's sustainable development goals 6 and 7 and align with Egypt's Vision 2030.

Keywords: Seawater reverse osmosis desalination plants; Solar photovoltaic; Wind turbine; Geospatial suitability analysis; Multi-criteria decision making; Sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148123017299
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:222:y:2024:i:c:s0960148123017299

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2023.119814

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().