Solar-Powered SOURCE Hydropanels Can Produce Up To 5 Liters Of Drinking Water Per Day

This start-up is behind hydropanels that make water out of thin air

MESA, AZ — On a plot of land in Mesa, rows of hydro panels whir as they work to convert sunlight and air into drinking water.

The hydropanels belong to SOURCE Global, an Arizona-based company founded by Arizona State University professor Cody Friesen in 2015.

“Basically, we created a special material that goes in our panels in a lab at ASU and spun that into a solution to try and solve the world’s drinking water crisis,” said Tom Borns with SOURCE Global.

There’s a four-step process to collecting water from the air.

First, the hydropanel takes in ambient air via fans and collects water vapor from that air onto a hygroscopic material that can absorb moisture (about 10,000 times more concentrated than in the atmosphere).

With heat from the sun, the hydropanel converts water vapor collected into liquid water, “made pure.” The pure water is mineralized with magnesium and calcium to achieve an ideal taste profile. Finally, sensors in each hydro panel monitor and optimize the water to maintain quality.

By 2018, Friesen had installed an array of 40 hydro panels in Kenya, where members of the Samburu Girls Foundation faced daily danger on their journeys to find water. They now have their own water source.

“We can now make perfect water, at your home, at your school, in your community in a way that is really bringing it into the 21st century,” said Friesen.

Source Global creates water using sun-powered hydro panels in a new bet on sustainability

Sounds refreshing. The hydropanels produce an average of 3-5 liters of clean drinking water per day (or up to 1.3 gallons). They can operate independently of existing infrastructure, which comes in handy in many areas of the United States.

This type of technology is desperately needed in places like India, where an estimated 800,000 villages don’t have clean drinking water. Friesen cited World Health Organization, showing that by 2025 “half the world’s population will be in water-stressed areas.”

There’s a domestic need as well. In the U.S, there are 1.5 million miles of lead pipes still in the ground, and about 750 water main breaks a day, according to Friesen. The business opportunity, he said, is enormous.

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