historic background of desalination and renewable energies
TRANSCRIPT
Solar Energy 75 (2003) 357–366
www.elsevier.com/locate/solener
Historic background of desalination and renewable energies
E. Delyannis *
Solar and Other Energy Systems Laboratory, National Center for Scientific Research (NCSR), Demokritos 513-10,
Aghia Paraskevi (Athens), Greece
Received 6 June 2003; accepted 7 August 2003
Abstract
It is interesting to travel through the centuries re-discovering inventions that brilliant pioneers achieved though they
lacked technological means. An historical overview may help to understand or even re-discover useful ideas that, with
today’s technology, can find applications. In this paper we will try to traverse historical paths by highlighting the most
important ideas and features developed from antiquity until today on desalination of sea and brackish water as well as
of renewable energy utilization with special reference to the use of solar energy for desalination.
� 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
1. Introduction
It is interesting to travel the paths of history and find
out that most modern applications have been, at least
theoretically, expressed by very bright pioneer scientists
and/or philosophers who analyzed physical phenomena
but did not possess the technology to develop practical
applications.
In searching bibliographic references or historic
documents one admires the efforts that scientists or en-
gineers have made in the past. You may wonder why it is
necessary to look back into the past? As engineers and
scientists of the machine and computer era, we look
toward future technological and economic develop-
ments. We promote technology for generations to come
for the benefit of humanity, exactly the same way pio-
neers did in the past. At least if nothing else history will
teach us humility and humanism. We must not forget
what the wise man of China, Confucius (551–479 BC)
once said: ‘‘Study the past in order to predict the future’’.
Think about a millennium later or even 500 years
later, in 2500 AD. How primitive and na€ııve the scientistsof that Era will find the tremendous scientific efforts of
today. But also remember that it is because of the
* Tel.: +30-210-65-03-815.
E-mail address: [email protected] (E. Delyannis).
0038-092X/$ - see front matter � 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
doi:10.1016/j.solener.2003.08.002
pioneers’ and founders of science and technology’s hard
work, that we now practice the sophisticated techno-
logies of today. History is our link to tomorrow’s
achievements.
Mankind recognized the potential of renewable en-
ergies from the dawn of humanity as useful or destruc-
tive forces. The sun was especially esteemed by the
Egyptians, Greeks, and Incas. Later on the ancient
Greek philosophers established that these natural forces
could be tamed. Early antiquity was depending for en-
ergy supply mainly on the sun and additionally on wood
products (let us say from biomass). Wind energy was
used mainly as kinetic energy for sailing ships and for
windmills. Today’s conventional energy sources, such as
fossil fuels and gas, were totally unknown.
2. Water and energy
Water and energy are two inseparable items that
govern our lives and promote civilization. Looking to
the history of mankind, one finds that water and civili-
zation were also two inseparable entities. It is not a
coincidence that all great civilizations were developed
and flourished near large bodies of water. Rivers, seas,
oases, and oceans have attracted mankind to their coasts
because water is the source of life. Examples abound
illustrating the importance of water in the sustainability
of life and the development of civilization. But the most
358 E. Delyannis / Solar Energy 75 (2003) 357–366
important example of this influence and birth of civili-
zation is Egypt. The river Nile provided irrigation and
soil, which was never exhausted, carrying a lot of mud
every year. Egyptian engineers were able to master the
river water and Egypt, as an agricultural nation, became
the main wheat exporting country in the whole Medi-
terranean Basin.
Due to the richness of the river, astronomy and
mathematics, authority and discipline, law and justice,
currency and police were created at a time when no
other human society held this knowledge. On the other
hand, energy is as important as water for the develop-
ment of good standards of life because it is the force that
puts in operation all human activities. Water is it self a
power generating force. The first confirmed attempts to
harness waterpower occurred in the centuries before
Christ. The energy gained was mainly used to grind
grain (Major, 1990).
Fig. 1. A mediaeval time distillation laboratory for the pro-
duction of herbal extracts, wine and oil perfumes.
3. The desalination concept from pre-historic times to
middle ages
The first written description of desalination is traced
to the Old Testament (Vetus, M.Dc. XXVIII), in Exo-
dus (about 1500 BC)
22 So Moyses brought the sons of Israel from the Red
Sea and they went to the desert of Sour. And they
marched three days in the wildness and they found
no water to drink. And then they arrived to Merra
and they could not drink from the
23 water of Merra, because they were bitter, therefore
he
24 gave to the place the name Bitterness. And the peo-
ple murmured against Moyses. Saying: What shall
we drink?
25 and Moyses cried onto the Lord. And the Lord
showed him a wood and he put it into the water
and the water became sweet.
It is conceivable that the ‘‘wood’’ mentioned above
had ion-exchange properties.
The Greeks were the first to express philosophical
ideas about the nature of water and energy. Thales of
Militus (640–546 BC), the first of the seven wise men of
antiquity wrote about water (Delyannis, 1960; Berthelot,
1888a) it is fertile and molded [C�oomilom caq ersı́mjaı e�ttpkarsom]. The same philosopher said for seawater:
The immense sea that surrounds the earth is primary
mother of all life. Later on Embedokles (495–435 BC)
developed the theory of the elements (Delyannis, 1960),
describing that the world consists of four primary ele-
ments: Fire, Air, Water and Earth, which under our
contemporary knowledge may be translated to: Energy,
Atmosphere, Water and Soil, the four basic constituents
that affect the quality of our lives (Delyannis and Be-
lessiotis, 2000).
Of all philosophers of antiquity it is the well-known
sage and scientist, Aristotle (384–322), who described in
a surprisingly correct way the origin and properties of
natural, brackish and seawater. He writes for the water
cycle in nature (Aristotle, 1956, 1962):
Now the sun moving, as it does, sets up processes
of change and becoming and decay, and by its
agency the finest and sweetest water is every day
carried out and is dissolved into vapor and rises
to the upper regions, where it is condensed again
by the cold and so returns to the earth. This, as
we have said before, is the regular cycle of nature.
Even today no better explanation is given for the
water cycle in nature. Really, the water cycle is a huge
solar energy open distillation plant in a perpetual op-
erational cycle. For the seawater he writes (Aristotle,
1956, 1962):
Salt water when it turns into vapor becomes sweet,
and the vapor does not form salt water when it
condenses again. This is known by experiment.
Until medieval times no important ideas or applica-
tions of desalination by solar energy existed, but during
this period, solar energy was used to fire alembics in
order to concentrate dilute alcoholic solutions or herbal
extracts for medical applications, and also to produce
wine and various perfume oils (Fig. 1). The stills or
alembics were discovered in Alexandria, Egypt, during
the Hellenistic period (Bittel, 1959). Cleopatra the Wise
(Berthelot, 1888b), a Greek alchemist, developed many
distillers as these in Fig. 2 (Bittel, 1959). The head of the
pot was called ambix, which in Greek means the ‘‘head
Fig. 2. The Cleopatra’s alembics: dı́bijo1 & sqıbıjo1 (two and three ambix).
E. Delyannis / Solar Energy 75 (2003) 357–366 359
of the still’’, but this word was applied very often to the
whole still. The Arabs who overtook science and espe-
cially alchemy about the 7th century, named the distill-
ers Al-Ambiq, from which came the name alembic.
Mouchot (1869, 1879) the well-known French scien-
tist who experimented with solar energy, mentions in
one of his numerous books that during medieval times
Arab alchemists carried out experiments with polished
Damascus concave mirrors to focus solar radiation onto
glass vessels containing salt water in order to produce
fresh water. He also reports on his own experimental
work with solar energy to distill alcohol and about a
metal mirror having a linear focus with a boiler located
along the focal line (Mouchot, 1869, 1879).
Fig. 3. The Della Porta solar distillation apparatus, as pre-
sented in his book ‘‘Magiae Naturalis’’ (Nebbia and Nebbia-
Menozzi, 1966).
4. The development of solar desalination during theRenaissance period
Later on during the Renaissance, Giovani Batista
Della Porta (1535–1615), one of the most important
scientists of his time wrote many books which were
translated into French, Italian and German. In the first
edition of his book Magiae Naturalis which appeared in
1558 he mentions three desalination systems (Della
Porta, 1558, 1570, 1631, 1612). In 1589 he issued the
second edition comprising 20 volumes. In the volume on
distillation he mentions seven methods of desalination,
but the most important reference is in the 19th volume
where he describes a solar distillation apparatus that
converted brackish water into fresh water (Della Porta,
1589, 1957, 1958). Fig. 3 shows the Della Porta solar
distillation unit (Nebbia and Nebbia-Menozzi, 1966).
He also describes, in the second chapter of volume 20, a
method to obtain fresh water from the air (nowadays
called the humidification–dehumidification method).
From the time of Della Porta until the 19th century,
there are no important applications of solar distillation.
In 1870 the first American patent on solar distillation
was granted to Wheeler and Evans. The patent, based
on experimental work, was very detailed. Almost ev-
erything known to us about the basic operation of the
solar stills and the corresponding corrosion problems
was described in that patent. The report started as fol-
lows:
This invention is based upon well known physical
laws.
The inventors described the greenhouse effect, ana-
lyzed in detail the cover condensation and re-evapora-
tion, discussed the dark surface absorption and the
possibility of corrosion problems. High operating tem-
peratures were claimed as well as means of rotating the
still in order to follow the solar incident radiation
(Wheeler and Evans, 1870).
Two years later, in 1872, an engineer from Sweden,
Carlos Wilson, designed and built the first large solar
Fig. 4. The world-wide first solar distillation plant at Las
Salinas, Chile (Telkes, 1956b).
360 E. Delyannis / Solar Energy 75 (2003) 357–366
distillation plant, in Las Salinas, Chile (Harding, 1883).
The plant was constructed to provide fresh water to the
workers and their families of a saltpeter mine and a
nearby silver mine. They used the saltpeter mine efflu-
ents, of very high salinity (140 g/kg or 140,000 ppm), as
feed water to the stills. The plant was constructed of
wood and timber framework covered with one sheet of
glass. It consisted of 64 bays having a total surface area
of 4450 m2 and a total land surface area of 7896 m2. It
produced 22.70 m3 of fresh water per day (Fig. 4). The
plant was in operation for about 40 years until the mines
were exhausted.
Fig. 5. The OSW solar distillation Station at Deytone Beach,
Florida (photograph E. Delyannis).
5. The achievements of the 20th century
Until the Second World War there existed only a few
references about new solar distillation plants such as
Abbot’s work in developing a solar distillation device,
similar to that of Mouchot (Abbot, 1930, 1938). At the
same time some research on solar distillation was un-
dertaken in the USSR (Trofimov, 1930; Tekutchev,
1938).
Meanwhile during the years 1930–1940 the dryness in
California awakened a new interest in desalination of
saline water in general. Some projects were started, but
the depressed economy at that time did not permit any
research or applications.
Interest grew stronger during World War II, when
hundreds of soldiers of the allied troops suffered from
lack of drinking water while stationed in North Africa,
the Pacific Ocean Islands and other isolated places.
A team at MIT led by Maria Telkes had already
begun experiments with solar stills (Telkes, 1943). At the
same time the US National Research Defense Com-
mittee (NRDC), sponsored solar research to develop
solar desalters for military needs at sea. Many patents
were granted (Delano, 1946a,b; Delano and Meisner,
1946), as practical individual small plastic solar distil-
lation apparatuses were developed to be adaptable to
lifeboats or rafts. These were used extensively by the US
Navy during the War (Telkes, 1945). They were designed
to float on seawater when inflated, saving many lives.
Telkes continued to investigate various configurations of
solar stills, glass covered and multiple-effect solar stills
(Telkes, 1951, 1953, 1956a).
The explosion of urban population and the tremen-
dous expansion of industry after World War II, brought
again the problem of good quality water into focus. In
the US, the growing water problem of the 1940s initiated
a number of legislative bills by the US Congress to ad-
dress water issues. President Truman took note of the
problem in 1950. In his budget message he noticed
(OSW, 1961):
Experience in recent years has been that it is not
possible to meet the shortage of water, which is a
threat in some areas, through our extensive water
resources programs. I recommended, therefore,
that the Congress enact legislation authorizing
the initiation of research to find the means for
transferring salt water into fresh water in large vol-
umes at economical costs.
In July 1952 the US Secretary of the Interior estab-
lished the Office of Saline Water (OSW) the task of
which was to finance basic research on desalination.
OSW promoted desalination application through re-
search, by the publication of R&D progress reports and
the construction of five demonstration plants. Among
them was a solar distillation in Daytona Beach, Florida
(Fig. 5) where many types and configurations of solar
stills (American and foreign), were tested (Talbert et al.,
1970). Loef, as a consultant to the OSW, experimented
with stills, such as basin-type stills, solar evaporation
with external condensers and multiple-effect stills, at the
E. Delyannis / Solar Energy 75 (2003) 357–366 361
OSW experimental station in Daytona Beach (1954,
1955). Loef also developed a glass-covered basin-type
solar still design with interconnected bays (Loef, 1957,
1958; US Bureau of Reclamation, 1957).
In the following years many small capacity solar
distillation plants were erected in some Caribbean Is-
lands by McGill University in Canada. Howe was an-
other pioneer in solar stills. He and his collaborators, at
the Sea Water Conversion Laboratory of the University
of California, Berkeley, carried out many studies on
solar distillation (UC/Davis, 1970–1985). Experimental
work on solar distillation was also performed at the
National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, India and in
the Central Salt and Marine Chemical Research Insti-
tute, Bhavnagar, India. The Battelle Memorial Institute,
at Columbus, OH, reported on all solar stills and solar
distillation plants experimented or/and built up to 1970
(Talbert et al., 1970).
In Australia, the Commonwealth Scientific and In-
dustrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Melbourne,
carried out a number of studies on solar distillation. In
1963, they developed a prototype bay type still, glass
covered and lined with black polyethylene sheet
(CSIRO, 1960). Using this prototype still, they con-
structed solar distillation plants in the Australian desert
providing fresh water from saline well water for people
and livestock. The larger of these solar distillation plants
(Fig. 6) was installed in Coober Pedy (Wilson, 1957;
Cooper, 1969).
At the same time Baum in USSR was experimenting
with solar stills (Baum, 1960, 1961, 1966). Other orga-
nizations in the USSR which carried out experiments
with solar stills include the Solar Energy Laboratory at
Krzhizhanovsky Power Institute in Moscow, the Physics
and Engineering Institute and Academy of Sciences in
the Turkmenian SSR (Baum and Bairamov, 1964). In
Ashkabad, Turkmenia a solar distillation plant was built
to provide fresh water to the caracule sheep. The plant
Fig. 6. The Coober-Pedy (Australia) distillation plant (photo-
graph A. Delyannis).
was fed with salt water from wells. An experimental PV
generator provided 300–400 W for pumping the brack-
ish water to the stills.
On March 17, 1954, the ‘‘Association for Applied
Solar Energy’’ (AASE) was formed in Phoenix, Arizona.
It was later renamed the ‘‘International Solar Energy
Society’’ (ISES) to accelerate the utilization of the sun’s
energy. About a year later AASE in collaboration with
the University of Arizona and the Stanford Research
Institute, organized the First World Symposium on
‘‘Applied Solar Energy’’ which took place in November
1955. In one of the papers Telkes described the Las
Salinas solar distillation plant, and reported that it was
in operation for about 36 continuous years (Telkes,
1956b). Two articles were dedicated to the history and
evolution of solar energy machines (Jordan, Robinson,
1956).
In January 1957 the AASE printed the first issue of
The Journal of Solar Energy Science and Engineering, the
ancestor of the Solar Energy Journal. The first article
was written by Abbot, on ‘‘Weather and Solar Varia-
tions’’.
Between the years 1965 and 1970 solar distillation
plants were constructed on four Greek Islands to pro-
vide small communities with fresh water (Delyannis,
1967, 1968, 1983, 1987). The design of the stills was done
at the Technical University of Athens (Fig. 7). They used
seawater as feed and were covered with single glass.
Their capacity ranged from 2044 to 8640 m3/day. The
installation in the island of Patmos was the largest solar
distillation plant ever built. These solar stills were of the
asymmetric glass covered greenhouse-type with alumi-
num frames. In three more Greek Islands the Church
World Service of New York erected three solar distil-
lation plants These plastic covered stills (tedlar) with
capacities of 2886, 388 and 377 m3/day met the summer
fresh water needs of the Young Men’s Christian Asso-
ciation (YMCA). Edlin designed the stills which were
tested by the OSW in Daytona Beach, FL. The first
plant was an inflated, plastic cover design, while the
Fig. 7. The island of Symi (Greece) solar distillation plant.
362 E. Delyannis / Solar Energy 75 (2003) 357–366
other two were plastic V-shape configuration (Eckstrom,
1965).
Solar distillation plants were also constructed on the
Island of Porto Santo, Madeira, Portugal and in India
for which no detailed information exists. Today most of
these plants are not operational. A lot of research is
being carried out on solar stills but no large capacity
solar distillation plants have been constructed in recent
years. On the other hand, considerable activity has
started in the area of renewable energy coupled to small
capacity conventional desalination units to provide
small communities with fresh water, especially during
the summer. These are mainly connected to reverse os-
mosis desalination plants of capacities over 1.0 m3 d�1.
The majority of these pilot-size plants are for experi-
mental purposes.
Fig. 9. King Akhnaton adoring the Sun. 18th Dynasty. Cairo,
the Egyptian Museum.
6. Renewable energy as energy source for desalination
Renewable energy is the alternative solution to the
decreasing reserves of fossil fuels. Total worldwide re-
newable energy desalination installations amount to ca-
pacities less than 1% of that of conventional fossil fuel
desalination plants. This is due mainly to the high capital
and maintenance costs required by renewable energy,
making these desalination plants noncompetitive with
conventional fuel desalination plants. Fig. 8 shows the
estimation byWorld Energy Council (WEC, 1994) of the
increasing general general use of renewable energies.
6.1. The utilization of the sun’s energy
Solar energy is the oldest energy source ever used.
The Sun was adored, in many ancient civilizations, as
powerful God, as it is shown in Fig. 9, where Pharaoh
Akhnaton adores the Sun. The first known practical
applications were in drying for preserving food. The
oldest installation for drying of food with solar radiation
was found in South France and is dated at 8000 BC.
The oldest large-scale application known to us is the
burning of the Roman fleet in the bay of Syracuse, by
Fig. 8. The World Energy Council (WEC) estimation of re-
newable energies utilization increase up to year 2020.
Archimedes, the Greek mathematician and philosopher
(287–212 BC), who used flat mirrors to focus the sun’s
rays to a common point on the ship. Scientists discussed
this event for centuries. From 100 BC to 1100 AD au-
thors made reference to this event although later it was
criticized as a myth because no technology existed at
that time to manufacture mirrors (Delyannis, 1967).
Nevertheless Archimedes is the author of a book called
Mirrors, which is only known from references about its
existence. Proclus repeated Archimedes’ experiment
during the Byzantine period. He burned the war fleet of
enemies besieging Byzance in Constantinople, (Delyan-
nis, 1967).
In his book, Optics Vitelio, a Polish mathematician,
describes the burning of the Roman fleet with detail
(Delyannis, 1967; Delyannis and Belessiotis, 1996, 2000;
Delyannis and El-Nashar, 1998):
The burning glass of Archimedes composed of 24
mirrors, which conveyed the rays of the sun into a
common focus and produced an extra degree of heat.
Although this was a military experiment, it proved
that solar radiation could be a powerful source of en-
Fig. 11. The A. Muchot solar concentrator at the International
Paris Exhibition in 1878.
E. Delyannis / Solar Energy 75 (2003) 357–366 363
ergy. Many centuries later, scientists again started to
experiment with solar radiation trying to convert it into
a usable form for direct utilization. In the beginning this
happened in Europe when machines were starting to
replace horses just before the industrial revolution.
Solar energy utilization resumed during the 18th cen-
tury first by the French naturalist Boufon (1747–1748),
who experimented with various devices called by him
‘‘hot mirrors burning at long distance.’’ One of the first
large-scale applications was the solar furnace built by the
well-known French chemist Lavoisier (1772, 1782), who
at about 1774 constructed powerful lenses to concentrate
solar radiation (Fig. 10). These two scientists greatly
promoted research and application of solar energy.
Between 1866 and 1878 the French engineer Mou-
chot, constructed and tested various concentrated col-
lectors in Europe and North Africa. Fig. 11 shows
Mouchot’s concentrating collector presented at the 1878
International Exhibition in Paris. The energy gained was
used to produce steam to drive a printing machine,
which was printing (in French) a Solar Energy Journal
(Mouchot, 1878, 1880).
The efforts were continued in the USA where John
Ericsson, an American engineer developed the first
steam engine driven directly by solar energy. Ericsson
built eight systems having parabolic troughs by using
either water or air as the working medium (Jordan and
Ibele, 1956).
In the beginning of the 20th century, the dramatic
increase in energy consumption by industry, ignited in-
terest in the possibility of harvesting solar energy for
extended practical applications. In 1901, Eneas con-
structed a large solar concentrator in Pasadena, CA. It
was a truncated cone having a solar collection area of
642 sq. ft. (59.64 m2) and used water as the working
medium. Two more were built in Mesa, CA and one in
Wilcox, AZ (Jordan and Ibele, 1956).
Fig. 10. The Lavoisier’s solar furnace with t
In 1901 a team of engineers constructed a truncated
cone concentrator similar to that of Eneas. It was also
installed in Pasadena, California and was known as the
‘‘Ostrich Farm Pasadena Sun Power Plant’’ (Jordan and
Ibele, 1956). The inner side of the concentrator was lined
with 1788 plane mirrors operated clockwise to re-adjust
the focus every 20 min. It produced steam to run a 10
HP (7457 kW) steam engine.
In 1910 Harrington erected the first solar storage
device of 19 m3 capacity. A solar driven pump was used
to pump the water to a storage tank, which was 6.0 m
higher. Schuman, an American engineer from Philadel-
phia, Pennsylvania, built the first flat concentrator. Later
in 1913, Harrington collaborated with Boys to install the
biggest solar power plant ever built in Meadi, (south of
Cairo), Egypt. The plant provided irrigation water from
the river Nile (Jordan and Ibele, 1956). The next large
solar plant would not be built for another 63 years.
he hot mirrors burning at long distance.
Fig. 13. The Abu-Dhabi solar MED plant, producing about
120 m3d�1 fresh water. It was erected in 1984 and is still in
operation.
364 E. Delyannis / Solar Energy 75 (2003) 357–366
One of the first large scale experimental solar power
plants was constructed by Francia, of the University of
Genoa, Italy (Delyannis, personal report). The plant was
installed at San Illario-Nervi, near Genoa. The concen-
trators were cyclic faced mirrors reflecting solar radiation
onto a central boiler, to produce steam. The plant con-
sisted of 270 heliostats of 1.0 m diameter each and the
output was 50 kW. Based exactly on the same design as
that of Francia, a pilot solar plant was installed in Sep-
tember 1977 at the engineering experiment station of the
Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta, Georgia
USA. This station was an advanced components test
facility for the US Department of Energy (US DOE).
The collector consisted of an octagonally shaped mirror
field containing 550 surface glass mirrors, each of 43.7 in.
(111 cm) diameter. The field focused the sunlight into a
focal zone of 70.3 ft. (21.4 m) over the center of the field.
The total power into the focal zone was approximately
400 kW. The focal temperature was 1900 �C (3450 �F)and the boiler had a maximum output of 130 kW. Fig. 12
shows the Georgia Institute of Technology experimental
plant as it existed in 1978, when the Silver Jubilee of ISES
took place in Atlanta.
Today there exist many large solar plants with output
in the range of MW, instead of kW, for producing
electricity or process heat. The first commercial solar
plant was installed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA,
in 1979, 63 years after the Meadi installation by Boy and
Schumann. It consisted of 220 heliostats and had an
output of 5 MW. The second was erected at Barstow,
California, USA, with a total thermal output of 35 MW.
Most of the solar plants produce electricity and/or
process water for industrial use and they provide super-
heated steam of 673 K. Thus, they can provide electricity
and/or steam to drive small capacity conventional desa-
lination plants driven by thermal or electrical energy.
Fig. 13 shows a solar driven desalination multi-effect
plant operated by solar thermal energy collected by
vacuum tube collectors. The plant was installed in Abu-
Dhabi, by the Abu-Dhabi Water and Electricity De-
partment, United Arab Emerits (El-Nashar, 1985, 1995).
Fig. 12. The Georgia Tech. Experimental solar power plant.
Some solar desalination plants coupled with con-
ventional desalination plants were installed in various
locations in the Middle East. The majority of these
plants are experimental or demonstration scale. This is
due mainly to the high capital and maintenance costs of
these plants.
6.2. The utilization of wind energy
After solar energy, wind energy is the most widely
used energy source for small capacity desalination
plants, mainly of the reverse osmosis type. There exist
many wind farms producing electricity and some are
connected to desalination plants.
Wind energy is, in fact, an indirect activity of the sun.
Its use as energy goes as far back as 4000 years, during
the dawn of historical times. It was adored, like the sun,
as God. For the Greeks, wind was the god Aeolos, the
‘‘flying man’’. After this god’s name, wind energy is
sometimes referred to as Aeolian energy. He was ac-
companied by eight god-winds which defined the various
wind directions. The Athenians dedicated a clock tower
to them, which still exists today in Athens. In Homer’’s
Odyssey (book X 22–48), it states:
Then to the Aeolian isle we came, where dwelt Ae-
olos, the son of Hippotas, dear to the Gods . . . forthe Gods . . . for the son of Cronos had made him
keeper of the winds.
In the beginning, about 4000 ago, wind energy was
used for the propulsion of sailing ships. In antiquity this
was the only energy to drive ships sailing in the Medi-
terranean Basin and other seas, and even today it is used
for sailing small leisure boats. At about the same period
windmills appeared which were used mainly to grind
various crops.
E. Delyannis / Solar Energy 75 (2003) 357–366 365
It is believed that the genesis of windmills, though
not proved, originated from the prayer mills of Tibet.
The first, very primitive windmills have been found at
Neh, eastern Iran and on the Afghanistan borders
(Major, 1990). Many windmills have been found in
Persia, India, Sumatra and Bactria. It is believed in
general that many of the windmills were constructed by
the Greeks, who immigrated to Asia with the troops of
Alexander the Great (Heron, 80 AD). The earliest
written document known to us about windmills is in a
Hindu book of about 400 BC, called Arthasastra of
Kantilys (Soerensen, 1995), where it suggested the use of
windmills to pump water. In Western Europe windmills
came later, during the 12th century, with the first written
reference in the 1040–1180 AD time frame (Merriam,
1980).
The famous Swiss mathematician, Euleur, developed
the wind wheel theory and related equations, which are,
even today, the most important principles for turbo-
generators. The ancestor of today’s vertical axis wind
turbines were developed by Darious (1931), but it took
about 50 years to be commercialized in the 1970s.
Denmark first installed wind turbines during World War
II to increase the electrical capacity of their grid. They
installed 200 kW Gedser mill turbines, which were in
operation until the 1960s (Dodge and Thresler, 1989).
They had a capacity of 300–500 kW. These types of wind
turbines were replaced by the new generation of ‘‘aero
generators’’ which are more flexible and cheaper than
the older ones. Today’s modern wind generators range
from 500 kW up to 1.0 MW.
Wind farms or individual wind generators are used
today to produce electricity for reverse osmosis desali-
nation units in order to provide fresh water to small
communities in isolated and remote locations having
sufficient wind energy sites.
7. Conclusions
Historic developments help new generations to un-
derstand the continuity of technological achievements
and to adopt and apply old ideas to new existing meth-
odologies. History is not an event that goes back only to
very ancient times. Taking into consideration the very
rapid rate of new developments, what is for our genera-
tion a new sophisticated development and application, is
for a new generation already an historical event.
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