(Credit: GivePower)
With the need for clean, fresh water across the globe on the rise, solar farms could help solve the crisis, according to GivePower, a nonprofit organization that provides solar energy solutions to developing regions. GivePower has recently installed its first solar water farm, in a region in Kenya that has suffered from extreme drought for years, that filtrates and desalinates the region’s brackish salt water. The farm will produce enough clean, sustainable and affordable water for 25,000 people every day, the organization says.
The cost of the farm is $20 per person and will provide access to clean water for 20 years.
GivePower’s desalination systems are housed in 20-foot shipping containers and capable of transforming 75,000 liters of brackish and/or seawater into clean, drinkable water every day.
Two billion people currently live in water-scarce regions and as many as 3.5 billion could experience water scarcity by 2025, according to GivePower.
Unlike most ground well systems, the nonprofit’s solar water farms produce a higher quality of water over a longer period of time with no negative environmental impact, GivePower says. The organization is actively researching four additional locations to deploy its solar water farm technology within the next 12 months.
Mounting environmental awareness and water stress challenges have pushed many companies to seek viable, energy-efficient and cost-effective solutions to address the growing issue of water security, but “unfortunately the world and its water resources are seeing increasing instability,” said Seth Cutler, environment and water senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan, in a report published last year. “As a result, water technologies and solutions need to take further inspiration from nature in how it deals with instability in resources, distribution, and quality.”
He added, “Our solar water farm solutions provide a consistent, high quality of water flow over a longer period of time with no negative environmental impact.”