Comparison between CSP plus MED and CSP plus RO in Mediterranean area and MENA region: Techno-economic analysis

Mediterranean (South of Europe) and MENA regions are increasingly facing the lack of fresh water supplies. They have high solar radiation levels, which make them good candidates for the development and installation of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants. Therefore, cogeneration of electricity and fresh water using CSP with desalination plants (CSP+D) can be proposed as a sustainable option for these regions. The aim of this work is to find the most suitable CSP+D configurations (including the power cycle refrigeration technology) in Mediterranean and MENA regions. For this purpose, a comparative techno-economic analysis of CSP+D plants that considers several integrations of the Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) process together with the independent freshwater and power production by connecting a Reverse Osmosis (RO) system has been carried out. The three conventional cooling methods for power cycles have been taken into account: dry cooling, once-through and wet cooling. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.