Weather data and analysis of hybrid photovoltaic–wind power generation systems adapted to a seawater greenhouse desalination unit designed for arid coastal countries

The integration of renewable resources such as solar and wind energy is becoming increasingly attractive. This is being used widely for substitution of oil-produced energy and will help to minimize atmospheric degradation. The major advantage of a hybrid system is that when solar and wind power production is used together, the reliability of the system is enhanced. In the present investigation, hourly wind speed and solar radiation measurements, made at a meteorological monitoring station in the Arabian Gulf country of Oman, were analyzed to assess the feasibility of using hybrid (wind + solar) energy conversion systems to meet the energy needs to power a seawater greenhouse The examination of the data collected during the operation of the seawater greenhouse confirms that it is technically feasible to take advantage of renewable energy to run the seawater greenhouse. Wind/solar energy can be employed to power the greenhouse to produce freshwater without the back-up support of fossil fuel energy sources. The greenhouse 16 m wide and 60 m long produced 297 L/day of freshwater. In only 8 h (between 09:00 and 17:00 h) the greenhouse produced 98% of the total freshwater. This interval corresponds to the duration of the solar sunning. The aim of our research is to develop the idea of using solar/photovoltaic or wind energy to power the seawater greenhouse.

1.5 Temperature (°C) which characterizes solar radiation is the solar radiance (or radiation). The solar radiance is an instantaneous power density in units of kW/m2. Fig. 14 indicates the diurnal plots of the solar radiation and freshwater production of the SWG. It can be seen clearly that the solar radiation went hand-in-hand with the amount of freshwater product. Fig. 15 illustrates the distribution of the temperature with the hours of the day (Al Hail site-Muscat). The curve has the shape of bell. Sun starts to be significant at 09:00 and stops at 17:00 h. Fig. 16 shows the plots of the variation of temperature and wind speed with the hours. It can be seen that the two plots have the same behavior (i.e., temperature went hand-in-hand with wind speed).