Evaluation of wave energy for a near-the-coast offshore desalination plant

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a renewable energy offshore desalination plant currently under preliminary development. The purpose of the installation is to test the feasibility of producing drinkable water using renewable energies in offshore installations. This is proposed, as an alternative for those locations where the land use, the civil engineering works and the environmental impact make a landbased solution inadequate. The proposed system is composed of a primary energy source (wave energy), which provides electricity to a marine reverse osmosis plant, that adapts its production to the available energy, balancing production and demand using an external grid.