Recent solar distillation developments

Abstract Rain is collected and stored to be used as fresh water supply over the year in arid areas. As an alternative, solar distillation may provide potable water to remote locations, where other water supply systems are not available. An overview is given of the existing solar distillation plants in the world, as well as the design geometry of various commercial solar stills. Modern trends in solar distillation consist in collecting solar radiation separately and combining the solar system with conventional desalination processes of proven technology. A short description is also given of the SOLERAS project.