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Abstract Desalinated water is an alternative and feasible water source that can help solve water scarcity problems. However, most desalination plants are operated using fossil fuels, which contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To face the problem of climate change, many countries are developing policies that promote renewable energy for electricity production. These policies might impact desalination costs. This paper proposes a methodology to evaluate the economics of desalination by integrating investment costs, operational and maintenance costs, and GHG emissions costs. This method will enable us to determine the impact of renewable energy polices on desalination costs. The empirical application was developed for Chile, a country with a promising future in renewable energy, and revealed that the full costs of desalinated water decrease by approximately 22% when the current electricity production mix is changed to predominantly renewable energy production. Moreover, this application illustrated the relevance of adopting a carbon tax to motivate the switch to renewable energy. This study demonstrates that the adoption of renewable energy policies involves a notable synergy with water issues. Highlights • Methodological proposal to estimate desalination costs integrating external costs. • Evaluation of the impact of renewable energy polices on desalination costs. • The adoption of renewable energy policies involves synergy with water issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, significant attention has been given to renewable energy integration within the context of global climate change. In the meantime, the energy-water nexus literature has recognized that the electricity & water infrastructure that enables the production, distribution, and consumption of these two precious commodities is intertwined. While these two issues may seem unrelated, their resolution is potentially synergistic in that renewable energy technologies not only present low CO 2 emissions but also low water-intensities as well. Therefore, renewable energy integration has the potential to address both sustainability concerns. And yet, renewable energy integration studies have yet to methodologically consider an integrated energy-water infrastructure. Many of these works rely on a coupled unit commitment-economic dispatch simulation. Recently, a simultaneous co-optimization method has been contributed for the economic dispatch of networks that include water, power, and co-production facilities. This paper builds upon this foundation with the development of the corresponding unit commitment problem. It demonstrates the optimization on several case studies inspired by Singapore & the Middle East. It concludes that renewable energy simultaneously reduces CO 2 emissions and water withdrawals. Furthermore, it shows how water storage can help alleviate binding co-production constraints, flatten production profiles and reduce production cost levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]