Can you tell us about the RCREEE’s strategies to promote the energy transition in the Middle East and North Africa, as it relates to the water sector?

The Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE) is an intergovernmental organization with diplomatic status that aims to enable and increase the adoption of renewable energy and energy efficiency practices across pan-Arab countries. RCREEE is the official technical arm institution of both League of Arab States – Energy Department and the Arab Ministerial Council for Electricity (AMCE). RCREEE teams up with governments, international organizations, IFIs and the private sector via several forms of partnerships to initiate and lead clean energy policy dialogues, strategies, and technologies, managing the facilitation of RE investment platforms and capacity development to increase Arab states’ share of tomorrow’s modern energy solutions. Having today 17 Arab countries among its members, RCREEE strives to lead renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives and expertise in all Arab states based on its strategic plan approved by its Board of Trustees. The RCREEE Secretariat has several multidisciplinary teams across Sustainable Energy and Climate Action sub-sectors with multicultural teams diversified across Arab and International professionals. The RCREEE, via its secretariat, is a financially autonomous organization. The main source of finance is generated via comprehensive portfolios of programmes and partnerships via development agreements with DFIs, third-party contracts, and innovative climate-finance programmes. The RCREEE also holds the fiduciary responsibility and all related legal jurisdiction of the canter’s activities.

The RCREEE provides its members states technical assistance and guidance to develop their national energy transition strategies

The RCREEE plays a role in providing its member states technical assistance and guidance to develop their national energy transition strategies and policies as well as its action plan. It also provides monitoring tools to assess their progress and produce the Arab Future Energy Index (AFEX) to follow up on the efforts of its member states vis-à-vis renewable energy, energy efficiency and access to energy projects. On the other hand, The RCREEE is promoting the adoption of the water-energy-food nexus approach and partners with regional players and national stakeholders to boost the dialogue between water, energy and agriculture actors, and concretely it encourages the use of renewable energy for desalination. A study has been carried out in favour of the League of Arab States to demonstrate the potential of renewable energy for desalination projects in the Arab region, apart from encouraging solar (PV) pumping in agriculture and the use of renewables for wastewater treatment and reuse.

What are the current trends and advancements in the integration of renewable energies in desalination processes and water management in general?

The integration of renewable energy and desalination has been cost-effective at a small scale for a while. Several small units of solar desalination (e.g., PV-RO) exist in rural/coastal and remote areas in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Oman, UAE, Jordan, etc. where the produced desalinated water from brackish water desalination is used for drinking and agricultural purposes with a competitive cost in some cases, while in other cases there is room for improvement, for example, to irrigate high-value crops, to make the combination more cost-effective for consumers or farmers. In general, PV-RO is the most popular combination, but we can also find some projects that are wind-RO or CSP-RO (indirectly such as the case of the Ait Chtouka desalination project in the region of Agadir, Morocco, with initially 175.000 m3 per day desalinated water, half for drinking and half for irrigation), or CSP-thermal desalination hybrids. In addition, we can find stand-alone PV-RO systems with batteries for use at night or when there is no solar radiation, and we can also find systems connected to the grid to keep them operating at night. Indirectly coupled arrangements or PV- and wind- RO are viewed as having higher TRL than directly coupled arrangements. The advantages of PV become decisive for stand-alone configurations and smaller-sized systems (approx. 1000 m3/day). In addition, ground requirements are less than half with better expectations of cost reduction. We can also find a limited use of solar stills which is used for small production of desalinated water.

Can you comment on the main challenges and barriers to the widespread adoption of renewable energy in the desalination sector, and how can they be addressed?

One option to reduce the costs of desalination for agriculture is to mix desalinated water with less low-quality groundwater

The main challenge of renewable energy desalination is that desalination technologies generally work in steady-state conditions, but renewable energy sources are usually non-stationary. In fact, renewable energy generation needs adjustments for continuous supply (energy storage), and desalination technologies can adapt to variable operations. Some additional challenges are associated with the cost and the environmental impact. As per the cost, for example the cost of desalination from small-size units in Oman (without electricity subsidy = USD 0.65/m3) is 63% more expensive than what farmers are paying in Spain for instance (USD 0.40/m3). One option to reduce the costs of desalination for agriculture is to mix desalinated water with less low-quality groundwater and follow certain irrigation deficit schemes to irrigate high-value crops. As per the environmental impact, we need more and more innovative solutions, but already farmers of the MENA region for example use evaporation ponds or zero liquid discharge techniques to deal with the brine.