THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the National Electrification Administration (NEA) are piloting solar hydropanels to provide clean drinking water to far-flung communities in the country.
These solar hydropanels can create drinking water using sunlight, water vapor and technology. The ADB already has four of these installed on its roof, providing its staff with clean drinking water.
The solar hydropanels, called Source Hydropanels, were developed by United States-based Zero Mass Water Inc.. Together with its Filipino partner, Green Heat Corp., ZMW distributes Source Hydropanels in the Philippines.
“From ADB to NEA, it’s a small grant, and we want to demonstrate the viability of this system—whether it’s working, whether the beneficiaries would appreciate it, whether there are difficulties operating this,” ADB Energy Sector Group Chief Yongping Zhai told reporters on Thursday.
Zhai said ADB extended a grant worth $80,000 to NEA to purchase the solar hydropanels, with each solar hydropanel costing $2,000. This is exclusive of installation cost that will be shouldered as counterpart funding of the NEA.
The project is being done in eight island communities in the Philippines. One such island is Silakis island in Bolinao, Pangasinan, near the province’s eco-adventure tourist destination Hundred Islands.
He said that, once ADB and NEA are satisfied with the results of the pilot, which is currently ongoing, the NEA could craft a “larger-scale package” that may involve a loan from the ADB.
“The deployment of climate-proof drinking water through the Source Hydropanels will help address the water-supply problems in rural and off-grid areas, especially in small islands in the Philippines, which lack access to both reliable drinking water and electricity,” Zhai said in a statement. Based on an ADB statement, the solar-powered Source Hydropanels extract water vapor from the air into a proprietary absorbent material.
The water flows into a reservoir where it is mineralized with calcium and magnesium for health and taste benefits. Each hydropanel displaces up to 50,000 standard PET bottles, providing high-quality drinking water and eliminating plastic pollution. ZMW Founder and CEO Cody Friesen said Source Hydropanels have a one- to four-year return on investment, and each panel has a 15-year life. The panels are 98-percent recyclable.
“The Philippines’s fragmented geography adds extra barriers for reliance on traditional water infrastructure, yet makes it ideal for our technology [to provide] families, communities and businesses with drinking-water resilience in the form of a sustainable drinking water supply,” Friesen said.
Green Heat Corp. will distribute, install and provide customer service for Source Hyddropanels in the Philippines. They will also be partnering with ZMW in scaling up the technology in the country.
ADB extends $5 billion worth of funds annually for clean energy projects, which forms part of its total development assistance to the region. In 2017 ADB financed $32.2 billion-worth of projects in the region, including $11.9 billion in cofinancing.
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza