We compare the performance of photovoltaic (PV), flat-plate and evacuated-tube solar-thermal (ST), and hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) collectors to meet the energy demands of multi-effect distillation (MED) desalination plants across four locations. We consider three scales: 1700 m³day⁻¹, 120 m³day⁻¹ and 3 m³day⁻¹. We find a strong dependence of the capacity and configuration of the solar collectors on both the cost of sourcing electricity from the grid and the specific collector employed. We find specific costs as low as 7.8, 3.4 and 3.7 USDm⁻³ for the three plant capacities. We find that solar-driven systems optimised for the lowest specific cost result in CO₂eq emissions equal to, or higher than, those from grid-driven reverse osmosis (RO) and in line with PV-RO. This highlights the need to consider the environmental footprint of these systems to ensure that desalination is in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 6.

我们比较了光伏 (PV)、平板和真空管太阳能热 (ST) 以及混合光伏热 (PV-T) 集热器的性能，以满足多效蒸馏 (MED) 海水淡化厂的能源需求跨越四个地点。我们考虑三个尺度：1700 m ³ 天 ⁻¹ 、120 m ³ 天 ⁻¹ 和 3 m ³ 天 ⁻¹ 。我们发现太阳能集热器的容量和配置强烈依赖于从电网获取电力的成本和所使用的特定集热器。我们发现这三个工厂产能的具体成本低至 7.8、3.4 和 3.7 美元百万 ⁻³ 。我们发现，针对最低特定成本进行优化的太阳能驱动系统的 CO ₂ eq 排放量等于或高于电网驱动的反渗透 (RO) 的排放量，并且与 PV-RO 一致。这凸显了需要考虑这些系统的环境足迹，以确保海水淡化符合联合国可持续发展目标 6。