Determination optimal site for building a solar-based water desalination plant in Iraq using spatial analysis techniques

Freshwater represents 3% of the total water on Earth, and the percentage of surface fresh water is 0.3% of Freshwater. Recently, two challenges emerging impact this element. First, surface freshwater levels are decreasing due to reduced rainfall, a result of climate variability caused by global warming phenomenon. Second, the remaining freshwater is becoming less usable due to increased chemical and physical pollutants and rising levels of dissolved salts. One of the solutions for increasing the percentage of freshwater the use of various desalination methods. In this work, spatial analysis techniques were used to find the best area to build a green water desalination plant using solar thermal energy (using point solar energy concentrators to evaporate water). The first phase involved identifying the area with the highest values of net solar radiation during the period (2008-2022), which amounted to 42.99% of Iraq’s area. Solar radiation is the primary determinant for the establishment of solar power plants. In the second phase, rainfall and relative humidity were used as parameters to narrow this area (the ideal area for building a plant has the lowest annual rainfall and relative humidity), bringing the percentage for Iraq to 30.98%. In the final phase, the number of annual dust days was used as a parameter to narrow the optimal area. It was found that Diwaniyah Governorate experienced the fewest dust days during the study period due to its vegetation cover. The optimal area for building green solar water desalination plants now represents 0.92% of Iraq’s total area.