Study of the Integration of Solar Energy into the Desalination of Brackish Waters by Reverse Osmosis in Tunisia

The central and southern region in Tunisia are highly dependent on groundwater resources especially for agriculture. Most of the extracted resources are slightly to moderately saline, unfit for irrigation. With the dwindling quantities, desalination of brackish waters seems like a viable solution, and it is used in some industries. However, this solution comes with a set of drawbacks that needs to be overcome, which are the high energy consumption and the environmental impacts. This study focuses on how to integrate water desalination for irrigation purposes without disrupting the energy mix of the country. We propose to use an open-source energy optimization model, OSeMOSYS, to study the impact of desalination using Reverse Osmosis on the Tunisian Energy Mix and to help understand how solar energy can play a role in lowering both the cost and environmental impacts.