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Solar-Powered Desalination

October 4, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Turning seawater into drinking water is an energy-intensive process and is therefore pretty expensive. Worldwide, one third of people don’t have reliable access to safe drinking water and they are the least able to afford expensive ways to get it. By 2025, half of the world’s population is expected to live in water-stressed areas.

At a newly-constructed facility in Kenya, a nonprofit company called GivePower has built a desalination system that runs on solar power. The system started operating in the coastal area of Kiunga in July 2018 and can create nearly 20,000 gallons of fresh drinking water each day – enough for 25,000 people.

GivePower started in 2013 as a nonprofit branch of SolarCity, the solar-panel company that ultimately merged with Tesla in 2016. However, GivePower spun off as a separate enterprise shortly before that.

GivePower mostly focuses on building solar-energy systems to provide electricity across the developing world.

Desalination technology is not new, but it is notoriously energy-intensive because it requires high-power pumps. The GivePower system is integrated with a solar microgrid that makes use of Tesla batteries to store energy for when the sun is not shining.

Local residents pay about a quarter of one cent for every quart of water from the system. The Kiunga community has faced ongoing drought and before the GivePower system was installed, was forced to drink from salt water wells, which present serious health risks.

The GivePower system cost $500,000 to build and is expected to generate $100,000 a year, to be eventually used to fund similar facilities in other places.

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A solar-powered system can turn salt water into fresh drinking water for 25,000 people per day. It could help address the world’s looming water crisis.

Photo courtesy of GivePower.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Energy Trends For A New Year

January 15, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

With a new year upon us, there are several energy trends to watch out for.

The most important one is that the fundamental shift toward slow-carbon technologies is continuing. This shift is taking place despite diminishing government policy support and even active government efforts to thwart it. There is just too much momentum to stand in the way of low-carbon energy technologies.

Analysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimate that over the next 30 years over 11 trillion dollars will be invested in energy power generation and power storage assets with 85% of it aimed at zero-carbon emission. Dramatic reductions in green energy costs have resulted in legitimate cost competition between zero carbon sources of energy and fossil fuel generation.

In the coming year, battery technology will continue to play a growing role both as a storage medium for energy generated by sun and wind and for powering vehicles.

Another trend is that the world’s wealthiest economies are learning to grow without growing the demand for electricity. This is important in the battle to reduce overall emissions.

Another key issue is addressing the energy needs of people who have no meaningful access to it and there are around 1.5 billion people in that category. Emerging technologies based on solar power, wind energy, microgrids and other innovations mean that traditional power grids that remain out of reach to these people are not necessary. There is the potential to address those needs without contributing to climate change.

The world is struggling to deal with the growing problem of the changing climate, but there are trends that provide at least some hope that we can move in the right direction.

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Top 3 clean energy trends to watch out for in 2019

Photo, posted April 5, 2013, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.