Canned water made using solar-powered ‘hydropanels’ to hit US stores soon

Bottled water extracted from the air using sunlight as a power source will soon be available for purchase in US stores. The sustainable solution, dubbed SKY WTR, is a product of Source, a Scottsdale, Arizona, based company.

Bottled water is a  US$350 billion industry that relies on harvesting water from under the ground. Estimates suggest that in the past three decades, 2,150 gigatons of groundwater have been pumped out from Earth.

By the end of the coming decade, demand for freshwater will likely exceed supply by 40 percent, and the changing climate will exacerbate the water woes of millions worldwide. This is where a solution that extracts water directly from the air will be handy.

How does Source do it?

A decade ago, researchers at Arizona State University spun off a company to extract water directly from the air without using electricity from the grid. The technology developed by the team, called Hydropanel, looks much like a solar panel, but instead of producing electricity, it produces clean water.

In this setup, sunlight powers fans that draw moisture-laden air into a water-absorbing or hygroscopic material . Solar power is then used again to release this moisture in a concentrated air stream.

The panel uses a smart controller to ensure that its dew point remains above the ambient temperature. This results in passive condensation of water collected directly in the panel. Each panel can generate up to three liters of water a day, even when working in arid conditions like Arizona. This is sufficient to meet an individual’s needs.

The water is highly pure and needs to be added with minerals to adjust its pH for the human body. Additionally, the team also ozonates the water to ensure sterility.

Why supply bottled water?

Source’s technology can be scaled up to meet the needs of residential communities or even spaces like schools, hotels, or remote worksites. The company has completed multiple installations in 56 countries so far.

With each Hydropanel costing US$3,000, Source’s customers have been governments or development banks looking to meet the drinking water needs of remote communities or those facing severe water scarcity.

To demonstrate how big the setup can be, Source has installed its Hydropanels at a site in Florida, where they generate 3,000 liters of water per day. The company is bottling and introducing this water to US markets as SKY WTR.

The idea isn’t to enter the bottled water industry as one more player. Instead, the product will help market the ability to make water directly from the air and raise awareness about Hydropanel technology.

The company is targeting millions of people in the US who lack access to clean drinking water and rely on bottled water instead. Using SKY WTR intends to demonstrate sustainable ways of sourcing water.

The high price tag of the Hydropanel is a sure deterrent to the technology’s adoption. However, the company is confident that it will be able to drastically reduce prices in the near future, making it economically feasible to produce one’s own water, and that too in a sustainable way.