An optimization model for a mechanical vapor compression desalination plant driven by a wind/PV hybrid system

A renewable hybrid system to produce domestic water is presented. It consists of a photovoltaic module, a wind turbine, a mechanical vapor compression desalination plant and a storage unit. An optimization model based on a mathematical programming is developed to control the energy flows exchanged among the system components in order to satisfy the domestic water demand. The model has been solved for three specific case studies in Morocco, where two of them are located in Rabat which aim to satisfy the hourly and monthly water demand of 20 households, whereas, the last one is in Essaouira, which aims to ensure the monthly water demand of 40 households. The main motivations behind selecting these specific case studies are the evaluation of the efficiency and feasibility of such system in two coastal sites having different characteristics of renewable energy sources. The obtained results show that the domestic water demands are satisfied in each time interval at a reasonable economic cost comparable to the current average cost of water in Morocco which is about 0.7 € m −3 . Keywords Desalination Renewable hybrid systems Mechanical vapor compression Renewable energy sources Optimization