Autonomous desalination system concepts for seawater and brackish water in rural areas with renewable energies — potentials, technologies, field experience, socio-technical and socio-economic impacts — ADIRA Original Research Article

The objective of this paper is to present the planned activities and future results of the ADIRA project. After a short introduction into the problem of energy and clean water supply in rural areas, a detailed project description follows in order to inform relevant stakeholders about the present activities and future results and to foster networking among international experts. The main lines of action are: (1) Identification and quantification of regions, where fresh water supply from seawater or brackish water with decentralised autonomously powered desalination units are a possible solution for the fresh water supply problem; (2) Generating information on market available desalination systems through a technical study and development of technical concepts for installing sustainable desalination units in certain areas; (3) Planning, implementation and monitoring of pilot installations to achieve detailed results on technical viability, socio-economic concerns; (4) Gaining information about actors in the field of water and energy supply, possible investors and political framework in order to be able to identify potentials and barriers to boost the implementation of decentralised desalination units; (5) Preparation of tools, data bases, training and awareness raising materials for supporting the systems designers, installers, operators and final water users in the implementation and sustainable operation of decentralised desalination units.