Most renewable powered desalination schemes are hybrids that displace fossil fuel power when renewable power is available. Their economic viability depends only on whether the renewable power source can generate electricity more cheaply than the fuels that it displaces. The framework used here by KAPSARC compares standalone plants that are powered only by renewable energy and therefore incorporate storage, either of input energy to allow the plant to run full time or of produced water to level out the production of an oversized plant.
