Abstract

This paper offers a techno-economic benchmarking of solar electricity alternatives for driving seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, using the System Advisor Model (SAM) from NREL. The alternatives include photovoltaics (PV) and three concentrated solar power (CSP) alternatives: linear Fresnel (LF), parabolic trough (PT), and solar tower (ST). The SWRO electricity demand is specified as 160 GWh/year with a specific energy consumption of 3.5 kWh/m³, and the analysis is carried out in a grid-connected annual offset mode to ensure continuous plant operation. The economic analysis is carried out over a 25-year project life with a real discount rate of 5.5% and a water tariff of 2.14 USD/m³. The calculated levelized cost of water (LCOW) clearly shows that PV has the lowest LCOW 0.82 USD/m³, followed by PT at 1.44 USD/m³, ST 1.52 USD/m³, and LF 1.77 USD/m³. While PV has the lowest LCOW, the NPV analysis shows that all alternatives have positive project viability with NPVs of 0.96, 13.21, 17.61, and 18.95 million USD for PV, PT, ST, and LF, respectively. In summary, the analysis clearly shows that technology differences under identical site conditions lead to significantly different desalination costs and investment indicators.

Key words: Techno-economic analysis, PV system, CSP systems, Reverse osmosis, System Advisor Model