Integrated Solar-Driven System Produces Electricity With Fresh Water And Crops In Arid Regions

Abstract

Stable supplies of water, energy, and food are the most essential factors to universal achievements of the United Nation s Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) by 2030. However, the already over-stressed water-energy-food nexus is further complicated by the ongoing climate change, which urgently calls for holistic approaches to address the conflicts regarding allocation of resources among these sectors and, in doing so, in a minimal-carbon manner. This poster demonstrates a self-sustained and solar-driven, integrated water-electricity-crop co-production system (WEC2P). The design of WEC2P is based on the atmospheric water adsorption-desorption cycle (1) to generate cooling power for photovoltaic (PV) cells to increase their electricity generation performance or (2) to sustainably produce fresh water from atmospheric water vapor to support crop growth. On the other hand, since conventional liquid-phased water resources are no longer an obstacle, the deployment of WEC2P is with the minimal geological constrain. Thereby, such system has the potential to facilitate the achievement of the SDGs as it provides a promising solution to decentralized water, electricity, and crop production suitable for arid- and semi-arid regions and beyond. It thus represents a meaningful contribution to the global water-energy-food nexus.