Yet another example of solar technology surging ahead for use in under-developed countries. This particular device is super efficient at distilling pure water from contaminated or salt water:
Rather than heating the bulk of a body of water, the new device focuses its energy on just the surface water, which evaporated at 44° C (111° F). That allows the still to reach a reported efficiency of 88 percent, which the team believes is a record for thermal efficiency. As a result, the device could produce between 3 and 10 liters (0.8 and 2.6 US gal) of purified water per day, compared to the 1 to 5 liters (0.3 to 1.3 US gal) per day possible with most commercial stills of comparable size currently available.
The device also does something else, it provides self-sufficiency:
“The solar still we are developing would be ideal for small communities, allowing people to generate their own drinking water much like they generate their own power via solar panels on their house roof,” says Zhejun Liu, co-author of the study.
http://newatlas.com/inexpensive-efficient-solar-still/47652/
I live in a big city with all the amenities required for modern living, but a part of me longs to go off grid. Ah well, maybe one day. 🙂
cheers
Meeks
Authors' favourite books
NANO 2012
February 5th, 2017 at 2:29 pm
http://wp.me/p8m3lF-P
LikeLike
February 5th, 2017 at 9:01 pm
Great to hear from someone actively working on creating solar energy!
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 2nd, 2017 at 12:00 am
Thanks for the link to the interesting article. The “Solar Vapor Generator” is a very clever idea. It could end up helping a lot of people, I’d say.
LikeLike
February 2nd, 2017 at 10:10 am
I think so too. Here in the West we dismiss renewables because they don’t provide ‘baseload’ power for all our hungry appliances, but in other parts of the world, they will catch up to us, industrially, via renewables not oil, coal or nuclear. And they’ll help the technology improve and become even cheaper in the process. Then /we/ will be left behind.
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 1st, 2017 at 1:44 am
I hope that the price of the new solar roof tiles becomes affordable before we need a new roof.
LikeLike
February 1st, 2017 at 11:15 am
Oh! Me too. I have some solar panels on my Colourbond rood [corrugated iron] but I’d love to have the whole roof covered. -fingers crossed-
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 1st, 2017 at 12:59 am
I’d love to go off grid, but I’m told the investment would have to be enormous.
LikeLike
February 1st, 2017 at 11:18 am
No idea what pricing is like in Europe, but my initial solar panels cost about $10,000 AUD to buy and have installed. They only cover a fairly small part of the roof though. Solar hotwater with a gas boost cost roughly the same and we never run out of hot water.
Maybe start with one project and add to it as you go along. That’s what I’m hoping to do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 1st, 2017 at 11:20 am
p.s. From what you’ve said, I think Mazamet would be a good place for solar. Do you have an unobtrusive south? facing roof? Maybe on the greenhouse?
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 1st, 2017 at 9:20 pm
The biggest section of the roof is south facing-but the energy guy said the investment would be 20k in panels plus a new combi-boiler (solar + gas), and that we’d get our investment back in 25 to 30 years- but that these systems have a life of 20 years so there would have to be more investment in the future. Meanwhile France has the cheapest energy in western Europe, so it just doesn’t seem worthwhile.
LikeLike
February 1st, 2017 at 9:30 pm
Ah, that’s a shame. But prices are coming down all the time so it might be more feasible in a few years time. Btw what does France use for energy?
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 1st, 2017 at 9:49 pm
Nuclear
LikeLike
February 2nd, 2017 at 10:13 am
lol – now I know why you want to go off grid. Spain, on the other hand, is very big on solar. Win some, lose some. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 2nd, 2017 at 10:27 am
Especially our former region. We were the EU capital of solar. At the last house all our water was solar heated, including the pool.
LikeLike
February 2nd, 2017 at 10:31 am
Ouch. That is definitely one area where Mazamet doesn’t shine. So do the cheaper rates for energy in France compensate for the lack of solar?
LikeLike
February 2nd, 2017 at 10:33 am
By a mile. Our energy bills here are about half of what they were in Spain- but part of that is there the appliances were ancient, and the pool machinery and garden lights consumed a lot too. Here everything is new and there’s no pool.
LikeLike
February 2nd, 2017 at 11:45 am
Wow…that is impressive. Our electricity is expensive despite coming from horrible coal fired power plants and I don’t have enough solar to compensate. -sigh-
LikeLike
February 1st, 2017 at 12:25 am
S’funny, your address and the threat of bush fires led me to think you already lived in the sticks somewhere fairly countrified. I never imagined you as living in a city.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
LikeLike
February 1st, 2017 at 11:22 am
Australian cities are basically one, huge urban sprawl and we don’t have much high density housing. Technically, Warrandyte is part of Melbourne now but it used to be a little gold mining town originally. Now it’s on the Melbourne ‘fringe’, in what’s called the ‘Green Wedge’. So we get the best and worst of both worlds.
LikeLike