ARENA has announced an Australian-first trial of drinking water systems that produce clean drinking water drawn directly from the air using solar power.
The $821,500 total project will demonstrate the technology not yet seen in Australia – a product that produces clean, renewable, infrastructure-free drinking water extracted from the air using solar energy.
The SOURCE hydropanels are infrastructure free with no external electricity or water required for operation.
Each SOURCE hydropanel produces enough water to displace over 20,000 plastic water bottles over 15 years.
Under the trial, SOURCE will be rolled out in 150 sites across Australia including Sydney, Adelaide, Perth as well as regional towns and remote communities.
The pilot will trial SOURCE in a variety of locations including airports, cafes, community centres, commercial buildings and sustainable properties.
The project will reduce the reliance on plastic bottled water while also provide accessible clean drinking water to rural communities with limited access to clean drinking water or electricity, or during droughts.
The pilot phase of the project will also incorporate a third party study to evaluate the environmental impacts of bottled water in Australia.
Using a combination of solar PV with solar thermal technology, SOURCE’s ability to create clean drinking water could be utilised to achieve positive solutions around water supply,” Frischknecht said.
“The potential benefits of this technology to the environment are important.