Recent advances in the applications of solar-driven co-generation systems for heat, freshwater and power.

Increasing the demand for water and energy resources as well as the clean energy policies and the need for pollution emission reduction has developed the research on the renewable energy resources. This paper reviews the recent advances in multi-generation units for heat, electricity, and desalinated water production. It tries to investigate the new papers in this arena which were not mentioned in the previous reviews. The main parts of this work introduce the co-generation systems for the production of "water and electricity", "heat and water", and "electricity, water, and heat". The results show that among the solar energy receiving devices, Photovoltaic/Thermal panels (PV/Ts) and parabolic trough solar collectors are the most used in co-generation systems. On the other hand, a combination of solar collectors and power cycles makes them a suitable choice for the establishment of a large-scale co-generation plant. Therefore, solar collector-based electricity and water co-generation systems have at least 10 times more output capacity than PV- or PV/T-based systems. On the other hand, most heat and water co-generation systems can achieve an output temperature of 60 °C or more and produce around 10000 kg/year of freshwater based on system size. Examining the co-generation systems of water, electricity and heat also shows that these systems have a high production capacity compared to other co-generation systems. Systems based on heliostat solar tower can produce maximum powers of more than 18 MW and fresh water of 90 kg/s. • Recent advances in solar multi-generation units are reviewed. • PV/Ts and parabolic trough solar collectors are most used collectors in cogeneration systems. • RO and MED have more applications in solar-based co-generation units. • Using waste heat can increase technical and economic performance of system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]