ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 566

Introduction
In the 21st century, desalination of water has become a dire necessity to overcome the growing
demand of water. Hence, desalination of water has increased up to 22 folds in the last century
and the trend of desalination plants around the world has been expected to impose a cost of
97.5 million m3 in a day in 2015. It is important to note that the desalination practice is associated
with environmental pollution as the d isposal of hot concentrated brine and burning fossil fuels
pollutes the atmosphere. Hence, it could be observed that the process desalination is associated
with a very low degree of renewable energy. It is therefore recommended to shift towards renewable energy sources such as solar energy to achieve sustainability and to reduce environmental
pollution (Ullah 2013).
Sun has a total energy output of 1020 MW, out of which 1014 kW is intercepted by the Earth. This
amount of heat intercepted by the Earth is more than enough in meeting the global energy demands of the planet. The thermonuclear processes occurring in the Sun produces electromagnetic radiations that could be easily converted heat, electricity and mechanical energy to cater
the ever-increasing demands of energy. Solar energy is clean and available on majority of places
on the planet; however, variations in intensity could be an issue. However, Kuwait is self-sufficient
in terms of solar energy and could easily use this natural resource for the purpose of electricity
generation (Cipollina 2009).
On the other hand, the conventional methods of generating energy such as through fossil fuels
have become problematic due to their high cost and decline in their global reserves. The rising
energy prices due to difficulty in relying on the present methods of generating energy have obstructed the social and economic development of many middle-income countries. This realization of depleting energy resources has generated the need to introduce major changes in the energy supply methods. Hence, the use of renewable resources for generating energy has incredibly
increased in the last few years (Bazilian 2013).
The use of solar power in generating energy has been used as a vast resource for converting light
to electricity and then to heat. The use of solar thermal energy is evident to meet the need for
producing low-carbon power and is more cost-effective. Hence, this method is found to be more
competitive with the generation of power through saline water and fossil fuels. The technique of
using solar energy to cater the power needs of the country are more evident in developing world
where the solar resource is very high such as in middle eastern companies (Fig. 1).

Figure 1: Global demand for renewable energy sources (Yinghao 2011)

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ZEMCH 2015 | International Conference | Bari - Lecce, Italy