Solar Powered Water Purifiers

Far off villages in developing countries might find these 40-ft long containers pretty useful — a water purification system that runs on solar power and is ideal thing to replace the noisy generators that run on oil, water-tankers and can save hours for people who walk daily to fetch it from distant sources.

That’s what the makers hope, an environmental technology group known as SwissINSO Holding Inc. This small company has succeeded in winning its first contracts and will soon be supplying these plants to Algeria and Malaysia. And now it is aiming to sell forty two units of what it says is the world’s “first high-volume, 100 percent-solar turnkey water purification system” in 2011.

Today's world of more than a billion people who lack access to fresh water has lots of room for this incredible system. It can also find its application in disaster struck areas and other fields like construction and military.

Company's Chief Executive 'Yves Ducommun' says that his machines(housed in the two containers) are capable of pumping a 100,000 liters of drinking water daily for 20 years costing less than $0.03 per liter, maintenance included. This setup itself costs somewhere between $800,000 and $1.2 million up front, depending on factors such as how many solar panels are needed to drive the purification, which filters out dirt and toxins, or salt from seawater, through a membrane.

This might sound like a lot of money for a village in sub-Saharan Africa, but when we see it on a scale of 20 years then it starts sounding nice enough for governments or aid agencies to show interest. The developers reckon it supplies enough water for about five thousand people. And can free them from walking long distances each day to collect water, therefore  allowing them to do other fruitful things, like working or studying.

“It’s a cost, but if you think of the cost of carrying water by tanker or truck to remote places, or a unit powered by diesel you are in a better position with our system,” said Ducommun. Especially with the forecast of more frequent floods, drought and desertification that'll arise due to climate change.