Put simply, there is not enough drinking water to go around. The causes are well known; groundwater reserves are becoming saline and contaminated, urbanisation is increasing, populations are growing and industrial activity is competing for natural water supplies. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) a global water crisis is the greatest resource threat humanity is facing today. According to the UN, 1 billion people today do not have access to clean drinking water and by 2030 as much as half the world’s population will live in water stress.

In developing countries the combination of poor infrastructure and limited energy sources, leaves people exposed to sporadic supply of services, poor maintenance and exploitative prices. Existing solutions are expensive, fossil fuel intensive, inconvenient or ill equipped to deal with desalination scenarios. Millions of women and children walk long distances to source water leading to physical exhaustion and potential sexual harassment. Poor quality of untreated water in such cases often lead to diarrhea, diseases and fatalities.

Half the hospital beds in the world are occupied by people suffering from waterborne diseases. Desolenator can change that.

Desolenator is a patented water purification technology that purifies water from any source using only solar energy.

Our technology is on track to becoming the most affordable ($0.005/L) ‘at-source’ method of water purification on the market. It offers a unique combination of features and capabilities, which make it ideal for household use. It's GSM- mobile enabled and is data driven through sensors- enabling service for even the poorest of the poor through micro mobile payment. It is eco-friendly, has a long lifespan of up to 20 years, doesn’t require filters/membranes, doesn’t drain the mains electricity and doesn’t expel toxic waste into the ocean. It’s one of the few products that has the long-term goal of preventing the worsening of the water crisis.?

Desolenator merges PV and thermal energy with a heat exchanger to drastically increase the yield of clean drinking water produced per square meter of solar panel surface. Desolenator transforms some of the existing bottlenecks associated with PV solar and turns these weaknesses into strengths in order to maximise the potential energy hitting the surface area of the system. Traditional PV converts 15-20% of the energy that hits it into electrical energy with the rest lost as heat. Desolenator uses all of this heat and traps it through insulation to heat the water, before using electrical energy to boil it and then a heat exchange mechanism to increase throughput and yield.

We estimate the total applicable market size at $25.3b, based on relevant global markets for: ‘point of use’ water purification ($14.1b, growing at 9.86% CAGR), bottled water ($60b, growing at 8.3% CAGR), sale of water from trucks (+ $2b, unknown CAGR).

We envisage Desolenator as a solution to the global water crisis; from California and Africa through to India, providing healthy, clean & fresh drinking water in an affordable and sustainable way.