Desalination 277 (2011) 274–280

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Desalination
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / d e s a l

Wind energy technologies integrated with desalination systems:

Review and state-of-the-art
Qingfen Ma a,⁎, Hui Lu b
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hainan University, Danzhou, 571737, China
b
Institute of Environment and Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agriculture Sciences, Danzhou, 571737, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Throughout the world, desalination is intensively used as a means to reduce current or future water scarcity,
Received 13 January 2011 especially for the coastal areas. However, the dramatic increase in desalinated water supply will create a series
Received in revised form 11 April 2011 of problems, the most significant of which are those related to energy consumption and environment impacts.
Accepted 14 April 2011
Renewable energy provides an energy security and environmental friendly option simultaneously when
Available online 6 May 2011
decreasing global reserves of fossil fuels threatens the long-term sustainability of global economy. Thus, the
Keywords:
integration of renewable resources in desalination and water purification is becoming increasingly attractive.
Renewable energy In this paper an attempt has been made to present a review, in brief, work of the highlights that have been
Wind energy achieved during the recent years worldwide and the state-of-the-art for most important efforts in the field of
Seawater and brackish water desalination by wind energy, which is one of the most common form of renewable energies. The wind energy
Desalination transform patterns, modeling and experimental studies of various wind energy powered desalination plant,
and the prototypes established worldwide are majorly discussed. Moreover, two important technological
problems in wind utilization are discussed, and the present or potential countermeasures for the intermittent
characteristic and direct utilization of wind energy are presented.
Crown Copyright © 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction environmental studies related with desalination technologies are

Water and energy are two inseparable items that govern our lives
and promote civilization. The social and economic health of the
modern world depends on sustainable supply of both energy and
water. As of today, about three billion people have no access to a
secure source of fresh water and about 1.76 billion people live in areas
already facing a high degree of lacking water [1]. Meanwhile, with the
increase of population, industrial and agricultural activities, available
water resources has been excessively exploited and severely polluted.
The need for fresh water is at the top of the international agenda of
critical problems, at least as firmly as climate change.
Because of the growing scarcity of freshwater, a trend to intensified
use of desalination as a means to reduce current or future water
scarcity can be observed. Seawater or brackish water can be desalted
and supplied in large quantity, but this will create a severer series of
problems, the most significant of which are those related to energy
consumption and environment impacts. If desalination is accom-
plished by conventional technology, it will require the burning of
substantial quantities of fossil fuels, which will aggravate the energy
crisis worldwide and environment pollution. The particular environ-
mental impact in desalination system is not well known yet, many
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 86 898 31132006.
E-mail address: mqf0920@gmail.com (Q. Ma).
being conducted [2].
Renewable energy provides a variable and environmental friendly
option and national energy security at a time when decreasing global
reserves of fossil fuels threatens the long-term sustainability of global
economy. The integration of renewable resources in desalination and
water purification is becoming increasingly attractive. However, at
present, total worldwide renewable desalination installations amount
to capacities is less than 1% of that of conventional fossil fuel
desalination plants [3]. This is due mainly to the high capital and
maintenance costs required by renewable energy, making these
desalination plants noncompetitive with conventional fuel desalina-
tion plants. However, the cost of renewable energy systems has been
significantly reduced during the last decades. Therefore, future
reductions as well as the rise of fossil fuel prices could make possible
the competitiveness of seawater or brackish water desalination driven
by renewable energies.
Solar thermal and photovoltaic (PV) systems, wind power,
biomass, oceanic, geothermal and nuclear energy etc. are the basic
kinds of renewable energy used nowadays. Among above renewable
energies, wind energy has been maturely used for power production
and wind turbines are commercially available on a wide range of
nominal power. The electrical or mechanical power generated by a
wind turbine can be used to drive desalination plants. The wind
powered desalination systems are one of the most frequent
renewable desalination plants, especially for coastal areas presenting

0011-9164/$ – see front matter. Crown Copyright © 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.desal.2011.04.041
 Q. Ma, H. Lu / Desalination 277 (2011) 274–280
a high availability of wind energy resources [4]. In addition, according
to some authors, among the various renewable energy resources, the
integration of desalination with wind energy had the least impact on
the environment, with an important environmental impact reduction
of 75% [5]. Thus, in high wind-potential areas where desalination is
also required, wind energy is the preferred energy source option.
In this paper, the status and development of coupling wind energy
systems with desalination units are reviewed. The following discus-
sion concentrates on the main wind-driven desalination models and
experiments as well as prototypes and implementations, aiming to
trace the development process and the problems arising, and light up
their perspective characteristics and trends.
2. Matching wind energies with desalination units
2.1. Desalination technologies
Currently available desalination technologies can be mainly catego-
rized into two groups:
(1) Thermal desalination (phase change process) that involves
heating the feed (seawater, brackish water or other impaired
water) to “boiling point” at the operating pressure to produce
“steam”, and condensing the steam in a condenser unit to
produce freshwater. Thermal desalination process includes
multi-stage flash (MSF), multi-effect distillation (MED), me-
chanical/thermal vapor compression (MVC/TVC), membrane
distillation (MD) and solar distillation (SD).
(2) Membrane desalination (non-phase change process) that
involves separation of dissolved salts from the feed waters by
mechanical or chemical/electrical means using a membrane
barrier between the feed (seawater or brackish water) and
product (potable water). In the membrane desalination, the
reverse osmosis (RO) and electro-dialysis (ED) are technolo-
gies used frequently.
The dominant desalination processes are MSF and RO—44% and
42% of world wide capacity, respectively. The MSF represents more
than 93% of the thermal process production, while RO process more
than 88% of membrane process production [4].
2.2. The coupling interface between wind energy and desalination unit
Wind energy and desalination plants are two different technolo-
gies, which can be coupled in various ways. The interface between the
wind energy system and the desalination system is met at the place/
subsystem where the energy generated by wind energy is promoted to
Fig. 1. Existing interfaces between wind energy and desalination unit.
275
the desalination plant. Considering that the energy requirements for
desalination continues to be a highly influential factor in system costs,
the integration of renewable energy systems with desalination seems
to be a natural and strategic coupling of technologies. Currently, wind
energy can power desalination plants directly or indirectly through
four types of energy media: electricity, thermal energy, gravitational
potential energy and kinematical power (shaft power). Fig. 1 shows
the existing interfaces between wind energy and desalination unit
which can be found in the following discussions.
Electricity is the most commonly used energy form as the interface
between wind energy and desalination process. After having changed
into electricity, the energy from wind plant can be employed to drive
desalination processes such as green house, RO, ED and MVC [6–9]. The
wind plant can be on or off the grid. For the intermittent characteristic
of wind power, usually backup facilities like battery, water tank,
flywheel system might be integrated into the system to store or release
energy when the wind speed exceeds or cannot achieve the required
value.
The technique of direct conversion from wind energy to thermal
energy has been studied for room heating and hot-water supply
systems because the efficiency of direct wind-thermal conversion is
higher than that of wind-electricity conversion and their structures
are simpler. Nakatake and Tanaka proposed a newly designed,
maritime lifesaving small distiller. The wind energy was directly
converted to frictional thermal energy to heat the distiller. The
proposed distiller could be driven by wind only and was predicted to
produce 1.5 kg/d or more when a 6 m/s wind blew steadily all day on a
sunny or cloudy day [10].
To reduce the energy loss caused by the wind-electricity
conversion, gravitational energy has also been used as the interface
between wind energy and desalination process. Fadigas and Dias
designed an alternative configuration to conventional RO desalination
systems by incorporating the use of gravitational potential energy,
without using either electricity or fossil fuels. The gravitational
potential energy, presented by water stored in a reservoir above a
certain height, was converted by wind energy from windmills (or
wind turbines) [11].
Besides, interesting experimental research about directly coupling
the kinematical power from wind turbines and a desalination unit has
been carried out. Projects AERODESA I and AERODESA II of Canary
Islands Technological Institute included the direct coupling of wind
energy and RO unit by means of shaft power [4]. In Coconut Island off
the northern coast of Oahu, Hawaii, a brackish water desalination
wind-powered RO plant was established. The system was driven
directly by the shaft power of a windmill using a high pressure pump.
The water production rate can be maintained at 13 l/min for wind
276 Q. Ma, H. Lu / Desalination 277 (2011) 274–280
Fig. 2. Breakdown of renewable energy powered desalination system technologies
implemented worldwide [19].
speed of 5 m/s [12]. Witte et al. proposed WindDeSalter® Technology
and analyzed its feasibility by calculation. The core of this technology
was using the substantial part of the available kinematical energy
from a WEC (wind energy converter) directly to drive the compressor
of an MVC plant or the high-pressure pump of a RO plant. The WEC
was also integrated with all necessary functional elements such as
seawater reservoir, filtering installation, pump units, desalination
units, compressor, heat exchanger and drinking water storage tank
[13].
3. Wind + desalination units
3.1. Wind + RO
Reverse osmosis (RO) is a pressure-driven process that separates
two solutions with different concentrations across a semi-permeable
membrane [14]. RO system major components include membrane
modules, high-pressure pumps, power plant, and energy recovery
devices as needed. RO is one of the most efficient desalination
technologies, requiring about 3–10 kWh of electric energy per m3 of
freshwater produced from seawater [15]. Since RO is the desalination
process with the lowest energy requirements and coastal areas present
a high availability of wind power resources, according to some authors,
wind powered RO plants appear to be one of the most promising
alternatives of renewable energy desalination [16–18]. Fig. 2 [19]
shows a breakdown of renewable energy powered desalination
system technologies implemented worldwide. The most common
wind powered water treatment systems in the past were RO and wind-
powered RO systems made up approximately 19% of total RES
desalination facilities, second only to photovoltaic-powered RO units
(32%).
3.1.1. Feasible and economic evaluation
Several simulation studies have been done to discuss the feasibility
of wind powered RO technologies, based on various models with
different emphases. Feron was among the first to evaluate the economic
feasibility of a wind-powered RO plant by mathematical modeling
analysis under some assumptions. The author concluded that the
economic use of a wind-powered RO plant might be restricted to areas
with high wind speeds and fuel prices. However, it could become more
economic because of current developments such as decreasing RO plant
costs and wind turbine cost, and steady or increasing fuel costs [20].
Later, Habali and Saleh conducted a cost analysis of a wind-assisted
RO system for desalinating brackish groundwater in Jordan. The
authors stated that it would cost less to desalinate brackish water with
a wind-assisted RO system than with a conventional diesel-powered
system [21]. Kiranoudis et al. performed a detailed analysis of a wind-
powered RO plant. Not only different wind turbines and membranes
were analyzed, but also seawater and brackish water feed were
considered. Moreover, generalized design curves for process structural
and operational parameters were derived [22].
Voivontas et al. developed a method to evaluate the potential
market for RES (renewable energy resources) powered desalination
systems. The results showed that Aegean Islands were the most arid
areas in Greece, with abundant wind energy. Thus most wind-
powered RO desalination plants could operate economically in most
of the arid Aegean Islands [23]. They also explored a computer-aided
design tool as a means to compare the alternative options on the basis
of economic indicators, combining technologies that guarantee the
desalination energy needs. Using the model, the effects of critical
design parameters on the water selling price were analyzed for a
wind-powered RO plant [24].
Garcýa-Rodriguez et al. analyzed the influence of the main
parameters on the cost of fresh water: climatic conditions, nominal
power of the wind turbine, salt concentration of seawater or brackish
water, design arrangement, operating conditions, plant capacity, cost of
RO modules and cost of wind turbines [16]. Romero-Ternero et al. [25]
quantified the unit cost of fresh water generated from representative
wind-powered seawater RO system as well as the exergy efficiency of
the process by means of thermoeconomy. The unit cost of freshwater
was determined exclusively by considering a wind-powered desalina-
tion system. The exergoeconomic analysis showed that the wind-driven
seawater RO desalination was cost-effective for the representative wind
power site with medium plant capacity and the unit cost of freshwater
was 76 c€/m3 [25].
In the past five years, with the rapid development of both wind
energy and RO technologies and the increasing aggravation of the
conventional energy crisis, feasibility and economic analyses of wind
powered RO plant appear to be more important to assist the design,
site selection, water production, and cost/price estimation etc. Koklas
and Papathanassiou [26] proposed a logistic model to provide insight
in the component selection criteria of an autonomous wind-driven RO
plant. The simulation of the system operation was performed
employing a variety of different configurations with respect to the
size of its main components (wind turbine, RO plant and batteries).
For each case, the annual water production was calculated, an
economic assessment performed and the water production cost
estimated [26].
Forstmeier et al. [18] developed physics-based system models to
confirm the technical feasibility of using wind as the power source for
desalination, including both RO and MVC units. The results showed
that the costs were in line with what was expected for a conventional
desalination system, proving to be particularly cost-competitive in
areas with good wind resources that had high costs of energy. Thus
wind-powered desalination could be competitive with other desali-
nation systems, providing safe and clean drinking water efficiently in
an environmentally responsible manner [18]. An integrated model
incorporated in the REDDES software for the use of renewable
energies (wind, solar) in the desalination of seawater was developed
by Koroneos et al. [27]. The desalination technologies (mainly RO and
MVC) were coupled with RES power systems to produce potable
water at the lower possible cost. The results indicated that water
production costs of an RES-desalination configuration depended
heavily on the available RES potential. The greater the RES potential
the smaller the energy production cost from the RES unit and thus
smaller water production cost from the desalination unit.
Spyrou and Anagnostopoulos [28] proposed a RO desalination unit
powered by wind and solar electricity production systems and by a
pumped storage unit. A specific computer algorithm was developed to
simulate the entire plant operation and perform economic evaluation
of the investment. Design optimization studies of the plant for various
 Q. Ma, H. Lu / Desalination 277 (2011) 274–280
objectives were conducted, like the minimization of fresh water
production cost or the maximization of water need satisfaction [28].
Koutroulis and Kolokotsa [29] presented a methodology for the
optimal sizing of PV modules and wind-generator powered RO
systems. Among a list of commercially available system devices, the
optimal number and type of units were determined so that the
20-year round total system cost was minimized, while simultaneously
the consumer's water demand was completely covered. The corre-
sponding optimal sizing results indicated that the total cost of the RO
system was highly affected by the operational characteristics of the
devices comprising the system [29].
Bourouni et al. [30] proposed a new model based on the Genetic
Algorithms allowing the generation of several individuals (possible
solutions) for coupling small RO unit to RES to minimize the total
water cost. A particular interest was focused on the hybrid systems
(PV/WIND/Batteries/RO), and a case of PV/RO unit, installed since
2007 in Ksar GhilŠne village of southern Tunisia was studied [30].
3.1.2. Prototypes and installations
The prototypes of wind-powered RO desalination system have
been reported in many regions of the world and a range of
experiments has been conducted with various concentrations. So
far, most of these installations, either connected to a utility network or
operating in a stand-alone mode, have been installed in Europe.
In France, as early as 1982, a small system was set at Ile du Planier.
It was a 4 kW turbine coupled RO desalination unit with production
rate of 0.5 m3/h. The system also was designed to operate via batteries
[31]. Another case where wind energy and RO was combined is that of
the Island of Drence in 1990. The wind turbine, rated at 10 kW, was
used to drive a seawater RO unit [32]. A very interesting experience
was gained at a test facility in Lastours, where a 5 kW wind turbine
provided energy to a number of batteries (1500 Ah, 24 V) and via an
inverter to an RO unit with a nominal power of 1.8 kW.
In Spain, the desalination leader of Europe [33], a pilot wind-
powered RO plant was installed at Canary Island, in 1984. It was
connected to the grid as auxiliary energy when the wind power was
not enough for plant operation, with production rate of 200 m3/d and
energy consumption of 5 kWh/m3 [34]. In 1993, a 56 m3/d hybrid
diesel-wind-RO plant providing fresh water and electricity for local
people and a battery-less wind-RO plant started operating at Pájara,
Fuerteventura Island. The system consists of two diesel engines and a
wind turbine of 225 kW. The Canary Islands Technological Institute
developed the concept AEROGEDESA based on the long-term
experience accumulated at Canary Islands, referring to a compact,
stand-alone wind-RO system with capacities between 5 and 50 m3/d
[35]. A wind/RO system without energy storage was developed and
tested within the JOULE Program in 2001 by the University of Las
Palmas. The RO unit had a capacity of 43–113 m3/h, and the W/G had a
nominal power of 30 kW [17]. Recently, experience of a seawater RO
plant with capacities of 5000 m3/d in Gran Canaria, Canary Islands has
been reported. The power produced by the wind generators was
variable throughout the year; at times excess power was sold to the
conventional power network in place, and sometimes the RO plant
consumed supplementary power from the network grid [36].
Additionally, a 500 l/h seawater RO unit driven by a 2.5 kW wind
generator without batteries was developed and tested by the Centre
for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST) UK. The system
operated at variable flow, enabling it to make efficient use of the
naturally varying wind resource, without need of batteries [7].
Excellent work on wind/RO systems has been done by ITC within
several projects such as AERODESA, SDAWES and AEROGEDESA [37].
A great job on the combination of wind/RO has also been done by
ENERCON, the German wind turbine manufacturer. ENERCON pro-
vides modular and energy-efficient RO desalination systems driven by
wind turbines (grid-connected or standalone systems) for brackish
and seawater desalination. Market-available desalination units from
277
ENERCON range from 175 to 1400 m3/d for seawater desalination and
350 to 2500 m3/d for brackish water desalination. These units
combine with other system components, such as synchronous
machines, flywheels, batteries and diesel generator, supply and
store energy and water precisely according to demand [38].
Other wind-driven RO systems in Europe are as follows:
• A RO system driven by a wind power plant, in Island of the County
Split and Dalmatia [39];
• Island of Suderoog (North Sea), with 6–9 m3/d [40];
• Island of Helgoland, Germany, with 2 × 480 m3/d [40];
• Island of St. Nicolas, West France, hybrid wind-diesel [40];
• Island of Drenec, France, with wind energy converter of 10 kW [40];
• Ile du Planier, France Pacific Islands, with production rate of 0.5 m3/h
[40].
Except Europe, engineers of other regions of the world have also
made efforts to install and test the wind-RO desalination units. In
1986, the installation of a RO plant in the Middle East began. It was a
25 m3/d plant connected to a hybrid wind-diesel system [41]. When a
second RO plant of 168 m3/d was commissioned by the Water
Authority of Western Australia, at Denham in Shark Bay, in 1991, the
power requirements exceeded the diesel grid's capacity and a
supplementary 30 kW West wind turbine was installed to power
the plants. Being grid connected, the plant imported power when
required and exported power back to the grid when excess power was
generated [42]. In Coconut Island off the northern coast of Oahu,
Hawaii, a brackish water desalination wind-powered RO plant was
installed. The system was using directly the shaft power production of
a windmill with the high pressure pump and RO. In particular a
constant fresh water production of 13 l/min can be maintained for
wind speed of 5 m/s [12].
3.2. Wind + MVC
Although mechanic vapor compression (MVC) consumes more
energy than RO, it presents fewer problems due to the fluctuations of
the energy resource than RO. MVC systems are more suitable for
remote areas since they are more robust, and they need fewer skilled
workers and fewer chemicals than RO systems. In addition, they need
no membrane replacement and offer a better quality product than RO.
In case of contaminated waters, the distillation ensures the absence of
microorganisms in the product.
Few applications have been implemented using wind energy to
drive a mechanical vapor compression unit. A pilot plant was installed
in 1991 at Borkum Island (Germany), where a wind turbine with a
nominal power of 45 kW was coupled to a 48 m3/d MVC evaporator,
with a 36 kW compressor [43]. The experience was followed in 1995
by another larger plant at the Rügen Island, in Baltic Sea, with a
capacity of 360 m3/d and wind energy production capacity of 300 kW
[44].
Additionally, a 50 m3/d wind MVC plant was installed by Instituto
Tecnologico de Canarias (ITC) in Gran Canaria, Spain, within the Sea
Desalination Autonomous Wind Energy System (SDAWES) project
[45]. The wind farm was composed of two 230 kW wind turbines, a
1500 rpm flywheel coupled to a 100 kVA synchronous machine, an
isolation transformer located in a specific building, and a 7.5 kW
uninterruptible power supply located in the control dome. A detailed
analysis of the influence of the main parameters of wind powered
MVC systems was performed by Karameldin et al [46]. The study
indicated that the operating evaporator temperature and temperature
difference recommended were 50 °C and 3 °C respectively. Under the
average prevailing wind speed in these areas, the system pro-
ductivities were 203, 398 and 938 m3/d when the wind turbine
diameters were 20, 28 and 43 m respectively [46].
278 Q. Ma, H. Lu / Desalination 277 (2011) 274–280
3.3. Wind + ED
Finally, ED process is interesting for brackish water desalination
since it is able to adapt to changes of available wind power and it is
more suitable for remote areas than RO. Modeling and experimental
results of on-grid tests of installed such system at the ITC, Gran
Canaria, Spain was presented by Veza et al. The main goal of this
project was to test and identify the most suitable desalination systems
for connection to the medium off-grid wind farm. The capacity range
of this plant was 192–72 m3/d [47]. Later, they developed an
operational envelope for the electrodialysis reversal unit, off-grid,
i.e., only coupled to the wind farm. The desalination unit showed good
flexibility, adapting smoothly to variations in wind power, even when
sudden drops or rises occurred [48].
4. Challenges and emerging/potential countermeasures to the
utilization of wind energy in desalination process
4.1. Intermittent characteristic and emerging countermeasures
Since the intermittent characteristic of wind energy, the desalina-
tion system driven by completely wind energy is affected by power
variations and interruptions. The power variations, however, have an
adverse effect on the performance and component life of certain
desalination equipment. Hence, back-up systems might be integrated
into the system to reduce the effect. Meanwhile, there is also another
solution, to integrate wind energy with other energy source, either
conventional or renewable energy, such as solar PV or thermal, diesel
[49], etc.
4.1.1. Integration wind energy with other energy source
The complementary features of wind and solar resources make the
use of hybrid wind-solar systems to drive a desalination unit a
possible alternative. Solar energy desalination is generally the
collecting of solar thermal energy that is used for desalination directly
in solar stills, or that is converted to electricity by photovoltaic (PV)
process first and then used in either thermal of membrane processes
for desalinations [50,51].
4.1.1.1. Wind/PV hybrid system. As early as 1979, Petersen et al.
reported two RO-desalination plants with the GKSS-Research Centre
(Germany) plate module system supplied by a 6 kW wind energy
converter and a 2.5 kW solar generator for remote areas [52]. Later,
they reported another two such prototypes which were installed in
the Northern part of Mexico (Concepción del Oro) and in a small
island at the German coast of the North Sea (Soderoog) [53]. The
Cadarache Centre (France) designed another unit that was installed in
1980 at Borj Cedra (Tunisia). The system consisted of a 0.1 m3/d
compact solar distiller, a 0.25 m3/h RO plant and an ED plant for 4 g/l
brackish water. The energetic system consisted of a photovoltaic field
of 4 kW peak and two wind turbines [31].
Test results of a PV/wind powered brackish water RO plant
installed in Israel were reported by Weiner et al [54]. Its production
was 3 m3/d and expected life-span was 15 years. Two-day battery
storage and a diesel generator were built to serve as the back-up of the
system. The test results showed that the optimum ratio between the
power of a desalination unit and PV/wind peak power was of the
order of 30–50% [54].
Kershman et al. presented a hybrid wind/PV powered RO
desalination plant implemented on Libya's coast of the Mediterranean
Sea. The nominal production of the plant was intended to be 300 m3/d
to supply a village with potable water. While the expected nominal
power load for the operation of the RO desalination system was
70 kW (net power after recovery), the solar PV system was designed
for 50 kW, and the WEC for 200 kW nominal outputs. The facility
design was flexible for the integration of a diesel generator and
electrochemical storage [55,56].
Except for the existing desalination plants, some novel ideas or
analyses for wind/PV hybrid systems have also been made. Mohamed
et al. developed a simplified method for sizing and simulating a hybrid
wind-PV powered RO desalination unit based on a techno-economic
analysis. The water production cost calculated (5.21 €/m3) was very
promising compared to the water transportation cost by tankers in
some Greek islands that can reach 6–12 €/m3, far below transporta-
tion cost of 20 €/m3 in Algeria [57,58]. Gilau and Small analyzed the
cost-effectiveness of a stand alone small-scale renewable energy-
powered seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) system for developing
countries by a new methodology and an energy optimization model.
Applying the model, using the wind and solar radiation conditions for
Eritrea, East Africa, they computed that for a two-stage SWRO system
with a capacity of 35 m3/day, the specific energy consumption was
about 2.33 kW h/m3, which was a lower value than that achieved in
most of the previous designs [59].
4.1.1.2. Wind/solar thermal hybrid system. Recently, wind energy has
been attached with the solar still to power the desalination process
together with solar energy. Mohamed and Zhao [60] designed,
fabricated and evaluated a new hybrid desalination system that
constituted of wind turbine and inclined solar water distillation
integrated with main solar still. A small wind turbine was used to
operate a rotating shaft fitted in the main solar still to break boundary
layer of the basin water surface. The system can produce distilled and
hot water. It was estimated that the electricity annual savings was
192.22 RMB/kWh/m2, and the quality of distilled water as well as hot
remaining water was good enough for domestic usage [60].
Moreover, wind and solar thermal can also be combined together
to drive the thermal desalination process. Fernández-López et al. [61]
analyzed an integrated desalination scheme consisting of two
sequential systems: a MED plant and a MVC system based on
evaporator equipment. The MED stage was driven by thermal solar
collector, whereas the energy consumption of MVC was fuelled by
wind-powered turbines. The final products were dry salt and fresh
water, with the desalted water production of 100 m3/h and the price
of 0.59 €/m3 [61].
4.1.1.3. Wind/multi-renewable energy hybrid system. Regarding to
other renewable sources combined with wind energy, an interesting
design—a floating island was proposed by Stuyfzand and Kappelhof
[62], although no such plant was implemented [63]. The plant was an
artificial, floating island 10–100 km from the shore, 0.06–0.65 km2 in
size with hexagonal shape, 0.1–1 km in diameter and 20 m deep. RO
unit was driven by a combination of renewable energy sources
including wind, solar, tidal, wave and hydrothermal gradient. A
storage reservoir aboard was used for stabilization and coping with
fluctuations in energy supply and water demand. The plant was
estimated to produce high-quality fresh water of 5–500 Mm3/year at a
cost of 0.88–1.32 €/m3.
4.1.2. Exploitation of wind-suited desalination unit
The disconnect relationship between the variable power production
of wind and the need for consistent energy input for most desalination
systems is important to improve the efficiency of wind-powered
desalination units. If desalination units could be designed to respond
effectively to variable energy input, i.e., the desalination units would
operate at variable capacities based on the available wind, there is no
need of backup energy storage or integration with other energy sources.
A company based in Germany, ENERCON GmbH, has addressed this
specific limitation of RO technology. As a company focused primarily on
wind energy products, ENERCON's operations have expanded to include
desalination technologies. They have developed an RO technology that
involves a piston system used for energy recovery that also enables
 Q. Ma, H. Lu / Desalination 277 (2011) 274–280 279

Table 1
Basic information about some wind-driven desalination applications.

Plant location Water type Desalination unit, capacity W/T Nominal power Commissioning year Unit water cost;
energy consumption

Ile du Planier, France SW/BW RO, 0.5 m3/h 4.0 kW 1982

Canary Island, Spain SW RO, 200 m3/d 42 kW 1984 5.0 kWh/m3
Island of Drence, France SW RO, 10 kW 1990
Pájara, Fuerteventura Island, SW RO, 56 m3/d 225 kW 1991
Spain
Denham, Shark Bay, Australia BW RO, 130 m3/d 30 kW 1991 12.5 cent $/kWh
Borkum Island, Germany SW MVC, 48 m3/d 45 kW 1991
Rügen Island, Germany SW MVC, 360 m3/d 360 kW 1995 2.1 kWh/m3
Gran Canaria, Spain SW RO, 200 m3/d 460 kW 1999 RO, 7.5 kWh/m3
MVC, 50 m3/d MVC, 14.4 kWh/m3
ED, 72–192 m3/d ED, 2.4 kWh/m3
Coconut Island, Hawaii BW RO, 2.7 l/min 1.2 kW 1999
Canary Island, Spain SW RO, 5000 m3/d 2.64 MW 2002 19.865 cent €/m3; 2.9 kWh/m3
CREST, UK SW RO, 500 l/h 2.5 kW 2004 2.6 $/m3
ENERCON, Germany SW/BW RO, 175–1400 m3/d (SW); 200 kW 2006 2–2.25 kWh/m3
350–2500 m3/d (BW)

Note: SW: Seawater; BW: Brackish water.

variable levels of energy input. ENERCON plants have no fixed operating
point and the water production can range from max. 12.5% to 100% of
the nominal capacity by adjusting the piston speed according to
demand. This has two main advantages: firstly, operation is possible
with a fluctuating energy supply, and secondly, output can be adjusted
flexibly to water demand without shutting down the plant [38].
thermal source unnecessary. In addition, the wind power can drive
the equipments such as vacuum pumps and compressor directly,
avoiding the energy loss caused by energy conversion process. Thus,
this kind of system might increase the usage efficiency of wind
energy, and further research should focus on system design,
parameter optimization and feasibility analysis, etc.

4.2. The potential of direct utilization of wind energy

5. Conclusions
The technologies have been developed to some extent to integrate
The use of wind energy for desalination appears nowadays as a
wind energy directly or indirectly to the desalination process such as
reasonable and technically mature option towards the emerging and
RO, MVC, ED and solar still. Although RO is the major desalination
stressing energy and water problems. In spite of intensive research
process connected to wind power, it is not always the appropriate
worldwide, the actual penetration of wind-powered desalination
one. For the remote areas which are short of fresh water but abundant
installations is still low. During the recent past, there has been a rather
of wind energy and seawater, more robust, easily operated wind
intense attempt to develop effective small or medium scale
powered desalination system should be explored. Considering
desalination plants, mainly powered by wind energy. The technolo-
environment protection, the system needs to discharge fewer
gies have been developed to some extent to integrate wind energy
chemicals and offer high quality fresh water but not the proper
directly or indirectly to the desalination process such as RO, MVC, ED
water from RO unit. Thus, in the long term, thermal desalination units
and solar still. So far, RO is the major desalination process connected
directly powered by wind power are more attractive due to their little
to wind power and MVC is the major thermal desalination process
impact on environment, high quality of treated water and energy
powered by wind. The basic information of major desalination
saving feature.
prototypes or plants mentioned in this paper is concluded in
So far, MVC is the major thermal desalination process integrated
Table 1. Through these activities, considerable experience has been
with wind. However, due to the higher operation temperature
gained.
(compared to the seawater temperature), additional heat source is
Similar to other renewable energies, overcoming the intermittent
always necessary. In the single wind powered desalination systems,
characteristic and improving the energy utilizing efficiency of wind
the transformation of wind energy to heat must reduce the energy
energy are two important technological problems in the present or
utilizing efficiency. Therefore, if the wind powered desalination unit
future research. At present, the solutions for the intermittent
can operate at lower temperature, eliminating the transformation
characteristic of wind energy are mainly integrating the wind energy
from wind energy to heat, the desalination cost and energy utilizing
with other kind of energy and designing flexible desalination unit to
efficiency might be improved. From this point of view, two potential
fit the variation of wind. As to the improvement of the energy utilizing
developments of wind-desalination system are suggested by authors
efficiency of wind energy, the authors has pointed out two potential
as follows:
kinds of wind-powered desalination units, possibly utilizing the wind
energy directly with less energy loss.
• The humidification–dehumidification process presents several
attractive features which are proper for the wind power, including
modest level of technology employed, simplicity of design, Acknowledgement
relatively high efficiency compared to other thermal processes,
and, most of all, the ability to combine with low temperature The financial supports by the National Natural Science Foundation
renewable energy source. Thus, it is of great importance to work of China (51009044), Scientific Research Fund of Hainan Provincial
further on problems related to the coupling interface of wind energy Education Department (Hjkj2011-05) and Start-up Fund Project of
and desalination unit, design and optimization of operational and Hainan University (kyqd1106) are gratefully acknowledged.
structural parameters, and cost evaluation systems as well.
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