Relying on Arizona State University research, Source Global has developed panels that generate clean drinking water from sunlight and water vapour.
Source Global, a US-based renewable water generation technology spinout of Arizona State University (ASU), has raised $150m from investors including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, CNBC reported yesterday.
Utility company Duke Energy, BlackRock and Lightsmith Group have also invested in Source Global.
Breathrough Energy Ventures is a fund for sustainable energy-focused Breakthrough Energy Coalition, an organisation established by philanthropist Bill Gates and backed by University of California.
Founded in 2015, Source Global has created hydropanels, a technology that looks similar to solar panels but that produces clean drinking water, rather than electricity, from vapour and sunlight.
The panels are powered by solar energy, with fans drawing in ambient air and passing it through a water-absorbing material to capture vapour, which passively condenses into a reservoir where minerals are added to create drinking water.
The panels were invented by chief executive Cody Friesen, the Fulton engineering professor of innovation in the Ira A Fulton Schools of Engineering. Friesen previously co-founded Fluidic Energy to commercialise a rechargeable zinc-air battery in 2007 and the company subsequently rebranded to NantEnergy.
Friesen saw a need for the technology both in the US and overseas, he told CNBC. In India, an estimated 800,000 villages did not have access to clean drinking water and in the US, some 1.5 million miles of lead pipes remained in the ground, he added.
The panels, which cost $2,000 apiece, have so far been installed in 450 projects across 52 countries. In addition to the panels, the company also sells water generated and bottled locally.
– Image courtesy of Source Global
