(by getting desalted water as a by-product from a
plant designed primarily for energy generation),
increasing energy consumption efficiency, and
augmenting conventional plant power with solar,
nuclear or any other energy sources. Also the
improvement of the control systems for MSF units
lead to improvement in plant efficiency due to
optimization of control parameters, better opera-
tion cost due to minimizing operation and site
supervision staff, and enhanced safety of person-
nel and equipment. The first Data Reconciliation
and Optimization System (DROP) was at Al
Taweelah MSF plant in the UAE in 1996 [11].
The objective of this system is to minimize the
cost of steam, electrical energy and the chemical
consumed in each MSF unit. Also, there are many
attempts to use the off-peak electrical energy in
sweater RO desalination systems.
Two solar desalination technologies have
received extensive testing in the GCC countries:
namely, the solar-thermal MED process and the
solar PV-RO process. The solar-thermal MED
demonstration plant which was built in Umm Al
Nar near Abu Dhabi city has been in operation
since 1984 and is still working at full capacity
producing 120 m3/d of desalinated water using
seawater [12]. The thermal energy required by the
MED evaporator was provided by a solar thermal
collector field of evacuated tube collectors having
an area of 1,862 m2. The plant has shown a high
degree of reliability and maintainability. The
economics of this technology was shown to be
favorable in many remote areas where the cost of
fossil fuel is high.