Water and energy are two intimately interconnected issues of strategic relevance for a sustainable industrial development. Herein, we integrated light-harvesting/self-heating membranes and salinity gradient technology with the aim to implement the innovative concept of light-to-heat-to-power conversion.Novel photothermal membranes, prepared by immobilizing silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on the top layer of microporous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) matrix, were tested – for the first time – in a Sweep Gas Membrane Distillation (SGMD) unit applied to the desalination of synthetic seawater solution (0.5M NaCl). As a result of the ability of noble metal nanofillers to act as localized thermoplasmonic nano-heaters at membrane-feed interface for efficient water evaporation, an increase of transmembrane flux under UV radiation by about 2.5-fold with respect to unloaded PVDF membrane was observed.The SGMD …