Photograph: Michael Johnson It is still quite a long way off from becoming widely available but one United States firm is using solar panels to harvest drinkable water directly from thin air.
Cody Friesen, founder and chief executive of Zero Mass Water, says eventually this technology will be able to bring water to communities everywhere. Essentially Zero Mass panels “take sunlight and air and we produce water,” he says.
He's been working on this technology for the last six years. It was first developed at Arizona State University, where Friesen was teaching engineering and materials science. In recent years Zero Mass’ water harvesting panels – called Source – have been installed in hurricane-stricken Puerto Rico, at schools and orphanages for refugees in Lebanon, and at high-end homes in California.
At present, each panel costs $2000 and produces an average of two to five liters of water per day, Friesen said. So is this really a cost effective way to produce drinking water? It's certainly the most sustainable, insists Friesen: “Today it takes far less energy (effectively none, since it’s entirely solar powered) to create drinking water with Source than any other mechanism.”
For more information, read this article in The Verge. Photograph by Michael Johnson.
Cody Friesen, founder and chief executive of Zero Mass Water, says eventually this technology will be able to bring water to communities everywhere. Essentially Zero Mass panels “take sunlight and air and we produce water,” he says.
He's been working on this technology for the last six years. It was first developed at Arizona State University, where Friesen was teaching engineering and materials science. In recent years Zero Mass’ water harvesting panels – called Source – have been installed in hurricane-stricken Puerto Rico, at schools and orphanages for refugees in Lebanon, and at high-end homes in California.
At present, each panel costs $2000 and produces an average of two to five liters of water per day, Friesen said. So is this really a cost effective way to produce drinking water? It's certainly the most sustainable, insists Friesen: “Today it takes far less energy (effectively none, since it’s entirely solar powered) to create drinking water with Source than any other mechanism.”
For more information, read this article in The Verge. Photograph by Michael Johnson.
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