Techno-economic analysis of CSP+PV+MED plant: Electricity and water production for mining industry in Northern Chile

In northern Chile is located most of the mining industry of the country, that need a large amount of electricity and water. However, the region is characterized by low water resource that addresses the necessity to find new sustainable sources. On the other hand, in the same region is located an excellent solar radiation, with more than 3000 kWh/m²-yr of Direct Normal Irradiation. The combination of the CSP with a Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) plant has been studied in the literature, demonstrating its potential for some places, but the location and environmental parameters can affect its performance. This study performs CSP+PV+MED model plant to provide electricity and water. The location of the plant was selected near to the Spence Mine in northern Chile at 1600 meters of elevation. A parametric analysis is carried out by varying the solar multiple, the thermal energy storage hours, the PV capacity size and the MED capacity size. The results show that CSP+PV+MED best configurations are between an optimum and oversized CSP+PV plant, and between 60 to 80% capacity of the maximum MED capacity.