This research paper presents a review of the state of the art of desalination in Mexico, with the aim of clarifying the main challenges and opportunity areas for desalination as the main solution to overcome water stress. First, the current situation and forecasts on the availability of water resources in Mexico are described, followed by the main economic, social, and legislative issues of desalination. Mexico’s installed capacity for the different desalination technologies and their evolution in recent years was investigated, followed by a comparison with global trends. The current state of research and development in desalination technologies carried out by Mexican institutions was also studied. The results show that membrane technology plants account for 88.85%, while thermal technology plants account for the remaining 11.15%. Although Mexico presented a 240% increase in its desalination capacity in the last 10 years, it has not been enough to overcome water stress, so it is concluded that in the future, it is necessary to increase its capacity in greater proportion, specifically in the areas with greater scarcity, which can be achieved with the joint participation of academy–industry–government through the creation of autonomous organizations, social programs, and/or public policies that promote it.

Solar energy is one of the main alternatives for the decarbonization of the electricity sector and the reduction of the existing energy deficit in some regions of the world. However, one of its main limitations lies in its storage, since this energy source is intermittent. This paper evaluates the potential of an underground thermal energy storage tank supplied by solar thermal collectors to provide hot water for the activation of a single-effect absorption cooling system. A simulator was developed in TRNSYS 17 software. Experimentally on-site measured data of soil temperature were used in order to increase the accuracy of the simulation. The results show that the underground tank reduces thermal energy losses by 27.6% during the entire hot period compared with the air-exposed tank. The electrical energy savings due to the reduction in pumping time during the entire hot period was 639 kWh, which represents 23.6% of the electrical energy consumption of the solar collector pump. It can be concluded that using an underground thermal energy storage tank is a feasible option in areas with high levels of solar radiation, especially in areas where ambient temperature drops significantly during night hours and/or when access to electrical energy is limited.

This study shows the results of a simulation tool using the TRNSyS 2017 simulator, validated with experimental data from a greenhouse in an arid zone in northwestern Mexico. Additionally, experimental data on the performance of geothermal heat pumps are shown during the year 2020 in heating and cooling mode. With this information, an average deviation of the simulator for the outlet fluid temperature of the geothermal heat exchanger (GHE) of 2.77% and an average deviation of the coefficient of performance in cooling mode (EER) of the geothermal heat pump (GHP) of 3.7% was obtained. In the experimental study, it was observed that in the last 2 weeks of July and the first 2 weeks of August, the subsoil is saturated, which causes a decrease in the thermal inertia of the GHE. During the experimental study, it was possible to determine that the flow indicated in the GHE to obtain the highest performance of the GHP system in greenhouses in arid zones corresponds to 1 GPM, obtaining an EER of 3.24.