Desalination, 67 (1987) 559-564 559

Else&r Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam-Printed in The Netherlands

WIND POWER
A RELIABLE SOURCE FOR DESALINATION

R. McBride, James Howden & Co. Ltd., Glasgow, Scotland

R. Monis, Scottish Development Agency, Glasgow, Scotland.
W. Hanbury, University of Glasgow, Scotland.

Abstract

Recent developments in wind turbine technology mean that wind power can now be
regarded as a reliable and cost-effective power source for many areas of the world. This paper
reviews experience to date on the development of wind turbines and in using wind power in
coniunction with RO slants for oroduction of notable water. The maior nractical uroblem of
co&ling a windpowei sour& to fn RO system lies in limiting the startuplshutdown frequency of
the RO plant. The economics of the combined. unit are briefly explored. Finally, the paper looks
at areas-of the world where wind powered desalination could be applied.

Wind turbines or as they used to be called - windmills - were one of the first sources of
power to be harnessed by mankind to supplement his own efforts. The earliest wind turbines that
are recorded were located in Persia at around 200 BC [l] and were used to grind corn. These were
fairly primitive vertical axis machines. The use of this type of wind turbine spread throughout the
Islamic world. With the development of a geared transmission system the more familiar horizontal
axis machine was developed to produce the furled sail windmill which is still in use today in many
countries around the Mediterranean. The design of this machine has remained largely unchanged
over the centuries.

In an interesting example of Technology Transfer, the Crusaders, in the 13th Century,

returning from the Holy Land introduced the wind turbine to Europe. These wind turbines were
also used for arindine corn but bv the 14th Centurv the Dutch had taken the lead in this
technology. Th;y dev$oped the slat&d blade design which is now synonymous with Holland and
were using it in conjunctton with the Archimedes screw to drain marshes and lakes in the Rhine
Delta. While there have obviously been developments in this machine over the centuries these
were relatively minor in comparison to the changes that were to come.

The Industrial Revolution and the coming of steam largely displaced wind power as a
useful energy source except in specific applications such as the pumping-of water for drainage or
supply and in the generation of small amounts of electricity in isolated areas such as farms. In the
United States it is estimated that around 6 million small multi-bladed machines of 1 HP or less
have been built for these purposes and that around 150,000 of these are still in operation.

Within the last 12 years and in particular over the last 5 years, spectacular developments
in wind turbine technology have taken place. This has been brought about by two important but
independent factors. Firstly the oil crisis of 1973 which escalated the price of oil and made us
aware for perhaps the fust time that energy particularly in the convenient form of oil was a finite
resource not totally within our own control. Secondly, and perhaps in the long term mom
importantly, we were becoming more aware that man was polluting the entire world’s atmosphere
by burning increasing quantities of fossil fuels. In looking at alternative sources of energy, wind
energy was readily identified as being available in virtually limitless quanuttes and was non
polluting. As a consequence of this considerable sums of money have been spent in developing
efficient reliable wind turbines ca able of generating useful amounts of electricity. This is
manifested today in the windfarms tKat have been built in the United States where since 1982 wind
turbines capable of generating around 2000 Me awatts have been installed. These have largely
been built on three locations in California where t%e wind regime is articularly favourable. Figure
1 shows the number of wind turbines erected in California and & err generating capacity. The
560

average size of these wind turbines is amund IN&W and is increasing. ln 1985, James Howden
ofGlasgowerected a windfarm of 75 300kW machines in California (Fig. 2).

Growth of wind turbines in California

16ooo 1so0

14000 1400 -D No. of Turbines

-+- Mwcapacity

12000 1200

10000 1000

8ooO 800

600

4cmo 400

2ooo 200

0 0
1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986

Machines up to 3 Megawatts have been built in the USA, Sweden and most recently in the
U.K. (Fig. 3). These very large machines have all been built with government funds for research
purposes but we are now in.a situation where commercially reIiabIe wind turbines with outputs of
up to 1 Megawatt are avalable and where machines with outputs of up to 5OOKW are being
?roduc.ed, on a large. enough scale to considerably reduce the unit price. Almost aII of the major
mdusmahsed counmes have major programmes for the development of wind power in hand.

Figure3. #iometerdiameter rotorfor

the Wind Energy Gmp’s 3Mw
Ttiine on Ckkney.
 561

Figure 2. The Howden Wind Turbines at Altmont. California

Wind turbines have in the past acquired a reputation for unreliability, largely due to the
failures of large research machines. More recently, series production of small and medium sized
machines has enabled manufacturers to offer lower-cost machines that can demonstrate high
reliability in service. It has been estimated that in California, where the majority of the worlds
wind farms are located, availability of most machines have been in excess of 90%. Several groups
of machines have demonstrated availabilities of 98 to 99%.

One of the problems of utilising wind power in process applications is the variable nature
of the resource. While the wind is relatively predictable it is seldom constant and there will be
periods when there will be none at all. The storage of wind energy in the form of electrical power
is really only practical when small amounts are involved. Storage batteries are very expensive. To
run a process of any magnitude on stored electrical energy is therefore not a practical proposition.
However if the product of the process can be stored inexpensively then it may be practical to
oversize the process equipment to allow for downtime. Water is just such a medium in that it can
be stored for long periods of time without deterioration and the storage vessels are relatively cheap.
A further requirement is that the process is relatively insensitive to start-up- and shut-down. In
Desalination Technology there are two processes which have this characteristic. These are Reverse
Osmosis and Electrodialysis. There is therefore a natural match between these two processes and
wind power. Of the two processes R.O. is the more common and some work has been done in
establishing the viability of wind powered R.O. Hence while these remarks address R.O. they are
in the main applicable to ED for brackish applications.

Experience on wind powered RO

The idea of using wind power to drive a reverse osmosis plant is not new. Lawland [3]
investigated the economics of wind driven desalination systems in the mid 1960’s. The Brace
Institute [4], in Canada, ran a small reverse osmosis unit in the early 1970’s in which the flow
rates were oscillated in order to simulate a wind power input to the plant, although no development
of their system seems to have taken place since. The Canadian design was for a direct mechanical
drive of the high pressure pumps by the wind turbine.

More recently, however, small experimental, genuinely wind-driven, units have been run on the
French island of Planier and also on Suderoog, a small island off the North Sea coast of
Germany. Both of these involved electrical power generation by wind turbines and use of this
power to drive reverse osmosis plants whenever the wind power was sufficient.
562

Some theoretical or design studies have also been undertaken - most notably those by Husseiny et
al in the U.S. in 1980 [7] and by Femn in Holland in 1985 [8].

The Practical Experience.

a). The German Experience.

The most significant experience is that provided by the joint MAN/GKSS project in which a
4.8 cum/day GKSS seawater reverse osmosis plant was hooked up to an Aeroman IV11
aero enerator, producing a rated output of 11 kW, designed and built by MAN [6]. The plant was
run for a one year period from August 82 to July 83. The MAN aerogenerator had an automatic
pitch controller which allowed the power frequency to be stablised at 50 Hertz, and thus allowed
the use of standard electrical components in the reverse osmosis plant. The reverse osmosis plant
apparently showed no adverse effects due to the continual start-up and shut-down cycles that it
inevitably had to go through due to the intermittent nature of windpowered operation. The RO
plant, although designed to use two membrane modules in series on the high pressure brine line,
was operated during this test with only one module installed. This virtually halved the potential
recovery of the lant and doubled the potential specific energy consumption. The specific energy
consumption ac l!ieved m the test was quoted at 36.3 kWhr / cu.m. The average production rate of
the plant when o erating was 2.64 cum/day. The RO plant utilisation factor was 45%. Since
plant utilisation Pactors of 80 to 95% are nearer the norm for conventionally powered plant, it
would indicate that wind driven plants would need to be significantly oversized and would suffer a
resulting capital cost penalty compared to conventionally driven plant

GKSS were contacted to see if there was any further information to that given in reference
16. On the question of how and when they allowed the RO plant to start up, they said that they
had arrived at a criterion of 20 minutes continuous wind speed above the cut in velocity before
allowing the RO plant to start up. This avoided excessive start-up/shut-down cycling of the water
plant. Once this criterion had been instituted there had been no trouble with the plant - it had
operated perfectly satisfactorily.

b). The French Experience.

Experiments with a 4 kW Aerowatt 4100 IT7 wind generator connected to a 0.5 m3/hr
seawater reverse osmosis plant operating at 25% recovery were carried out by CEA - Cen
Cadarache [5] during 1982 and 1983 on the island of Planier and subsequently at Faraman. The
RO plant employed a pelton turbine for energy recovery, retrieving 1.2 kW from the outgoing
brine flow. Again the major problem reported in these experiments was the frequent start up shut
down cycles particularly when the wind speed was in the region of the cut in s eed. When
operating at a wind speed in excess of 7 m/s the combination gave an output of 0.5 m J /br yielding
an energy consumption of 7.8 kW/m3.

The frequent cycling problems experienced at Planier and Faraman led to experiments in
which battery energy storage systems were included in a simulated wind powered system at
Cadarache in 1984. Economic studies based on the results of these experiments favoured a system
which employed DC motors and battery storage and indicated that water costs comparable with
conventional desalination systems might be expected.

Technical Aspects

The practical experience on wind powered RO systems has been with relatively small
capacity systems. Since the time of these experiments significant developments have taken place,
most notably the availability of larger, production, wind turbines which can provide wind
generated electrical power on a larger and more economic scale. It now remains to combine these
‘new generation’ wind turbines together with larger RO plants to form viable self contained water
plants.

From a study of the literature and discussion with some of the people that have had
experience of the small scale plant there is no indication that them should be any particular problem
in hooking up a standard seawater reverse osmosis plant with a larger wind turbine generator using
 563

a conventional electrical drive. The only matters that would require some careful design would be
the relative sizes of the wind turbine and the RO plant and the cut-in and cut-out criteria for the RO
plant to avoid excessive startup shutdown cycles. The optimisation of such a plant would certainly
require detailed study and simulation under the actual conditions in which the plant is to serve.

The electrical transmission route is probably the easiest to follow. Although some direct
drive system may hold out a slightly greater efficiency, it would certainly require much more
development work, particularly in the control aspects. The most sensible route forward would
appear to be acquisition of a standard RO plant to run under test conditions connected to a standard
wind turbine generator. Suitable modifications to either may then be made to enhance the matching
of the combination. It is unlikely that energy storage would prove economical in these larger
systems, although energy recovery for seawater plants would almost certainly be so.
Economic Factors

The average intalled capital costs for Californian wind turbines have decreased from over
$3,OOO/kW,in 1981, to $1,25O/kW in 1986 [A] and the estimated O&M costs are of the order of
lc/kWh [B]. The average installed costs of seawater RO plants are in the order of from $1,000 to
$1,500 per cubic meter per day capacity.

Using these specific costs together with load factors for both the wind turbine and the RO
~~~otw;p_propriateto their combined operation a simplistic water cost estimate may be made as

Wind Turbine &stings fiWh

Specific Capital Cost $/kW 1.250
AmortisatiOn rate %
Load factor % ::
CL&d charge 6.49
Power cost ::LG
SWRO Castings $h3
Specific Capital cost $/m3/day 1,250
Specific Energy Consumption kWh/m3 8.0
Load factor % 60

Capital 0.86
Chemicals 0.08
Staff 0.16
Membrane replacement 0.17
Power @ 7.49 c/kWh
spares Kz
Water Costs $1194 lm3

Prospects

The prospects for Wind Powered Reverse Osmosis plants would appear to be good
enough to merit serious further investigation. There are no serious technical difficulties in
matching up an electricity generating wind turbine with an electrically driven reverse osmosis
plant. The economics of running the reverse osmosis plant at a low load factor would have to be
assessed for each particular case. The sort of performance figures that one might expect to get from
such a combination desalinating seawater on a site with a reasonable wind regime might look as
follows:-

Wind Turbine: Rated output 60kW

actual average 20 kW

RO Plant: Rated output 80 m3/d

actual average 48 m3/d
564

The actual ratio of wind turbine size to ROplant sire that might be used in any instance
should result from an optimisation making use of data that will be. site specific for both the wind
turbine and for the RO plant.

The most promising potential market for wind powered RO is in present or potential
future island tourist developments in places such as the Canaries, the West Indies, the
Mediterranean islands, the Pacific Islands etc. Generally, if wind powered electricity generation is
an economic proposition in any of these places and water is scarce (which it usually is), then wind
powered reverse osmosis should also be economic.

The economics of a combination of a wind turbine with an RO plant is helped by the fact
that water is a storable commodity. The RO plant should be able to utilise the wind turbine
efficiently, although the converse will not generally be true in that the RO plant will be operating at
a low load factor (typically 60 to 70%).

Now that significantly larger and more reliable wind turbines have become available,
wind powered desalination is poised to make the breakthrough into commercial applications. The
next step should be a full scale demonstration plant. Islands with water and fuel shortages and with
a good wind regime should consider this possibility seriously.

REFERENCES

Eldridge, “Wind Machines”, Van Nostrand.

Milborrow, D. International Notes, WINDirections, VI (1987) No. 4,21-25.

T.A. Lawland, The Economics of Wind Powered Desalination Systems, Brace Institute
Technical Report T-36, June 1967.

R Alward, E.R. Lising and T.A. Lawland, The Effect of a Variable Power Input on the
Performance of a Reverse Osmosis De&nation Unit, 4th Int. Symp. on Fresh Water from
the Sea, Vol. 4,25-34, 1973.

Libert, J.J. and Maurel, A., Desalination and Renewable Energies - A

Few Recent Developments, Desalination, 39 (198 1)

Petersen, Cl., Fries, S., Kaiba, K. and Knunz, D.., A Wind-Powered Water
Desalination Plant for a Small Island Communtty at the German Coast
of the North Sea - Design and Working Experience, Proc. 3rd Int. Conf.,
Inverness, Scotland, U.K. (1983) 173-180

Unione, A., McClymont, A., Dix, T. and Husseiny, A., Wind Powered
Reverse Osmosis for Self-Contamed Village Applications, A Design
fltid~30Proc. 7th Int. Symp. on Fresh Water from the Sea, Vol. 2 (1980)

Feron, P., The Use of Windpower in Autonomous Reverse Osmosis

Seawater Desalination, Wind Engineering Vo1.9,No.3,1985