Renewable Energy Supply and Demand for the City of El Gouna, Egypt

• Main Authors: Johannes Wellmann, Tatiana Morosuk
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2016-03-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: renewable energiesl concentrating solar power; thermal seawater desalination; thermal energy storage; surplus power
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/4/314

The paper discusses a supply and demand scenario using renewable energy sources for the city El Gouna in Egypt as an example for a self-supplying community. All calculations are based on measured meteorological data and real power demand during the year 2013. The modeled energy system consists of a concentrating solar tower plant with thermal storage and low-temperature seawater desalination unit as well as an integrated photovoltaic plant and a wind turbine. The low-temperature desalination unit has been newly developed in order to enable the utilization of waste heat from power conversion processes by improved thermal efficiency. In the study, special attention is given to the surplus power handling generated by the photovoltaic and wind power plant. Surplus power is converted into heat and stored in the thermal storage system of the solar power plant in order to increase the capacity factor. A brief estimation of investment costs have been conducted as well in order to outline the economic performance of the modeled energy and water supply system.