The present work concerns the parametric study of an autonomous, two-stage solar organic Rankine cycle for RO desalination. The main goal of the current simulation is to estimate the efficiency. as well as to calculate the annual mechanical energy available for desalination in the considered cases, in order to evaluate the influence of various parameters on the performance of the system. The parametric study concerns the variation of different parameters, without changing actually the baseline case. The effect of the collectors' slope and the total number of evacuated tube collectors used, have been extensively examined. The total cost is also taken into consideration and is calculated for the different cases examined, along with the specific fresh water cost ((sic)/m(3)). (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved