Advancing sustainable desalination: integrating renewable energy for efficient and viable water solutions

ABSTRACT Desalination plants play a crucial role in ensuring potable water supply, but remain heavily dependent on fossil-fuel-based electricity, leading to environmental degradation and resource depletion. The growing emphasis on sustainability has driven research to integrate renewable energy sources – particularly solar, wind, and geothermal into established desalination technologies such as reverse osmosis (RO), multi-stage flash (MSF), and multi-effect distillation (MED). Among these, photovoltaic (PV)-powered RO systems stand out for their cost-effectiveness, modularity, and suitability for decentralised applications. Solar thermal systems coupled with MSF and MED are technically feasible but require advanced thermal management to enhance efficiency, whereas geothermal energy offers a steady heat supply but demands a high capital investment. Wind energy supports electrically driven membrane desalination but depends on robust storage and hybrid configurations for reliability. A critical review of research from 2013 to 2024 reveals persistent challenges, including intermittency in renewable power, economic limitations, and integration complexity. Hybrid renewable–desalination systems show significant promise by improving energy efficiency, water recovery, and waste minimisation. However, achieving large-scale, low-carbon desalination requires continued innovation in membrane materials, energy storage, and system optimisation, along with pilot-scale validation to enable sustainable, economically viable freshwater production globally.