PHOENIX, Az. – They’re like solar panels, except instead of electricity, they produce water. Source Global’s hydropanels create water out of thin air and bring it where it’s most needed. CEO Cody Friesen invented the panels in 2014 at Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, where he’s on the faculty.
A year later, he turned the science into Source Global. The start-up’s panels cost about $2,000 a piece.
“We take sunlight and air and we can produce perfect drinking water essentially anywhere on the planet,” Friesen said. “And so we take water that has historically been probably humanity’s greatest challenge and turn it into a renewable resource that is perfect essentially everywhere.”
Source’s hydropanels take in water vapor from the air and pack it into a form that’s about 10,000 times more concentrated than in the atmosphere. Using the warmth of the sun, the system converts the molecules into liquid water, which is collected in a reservoir inside the panel and then released as pure water.
By 2018, Friesen had installed an array of 40 hydropanels 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.
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