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All the newsInnovation: a solar power plant to convert seawater into drinking water in Kenya
Solar energy provides electricity and clean water – a little known function at present. This is what the NGO Give Power has developed. It was founded in California in 2013 (United States), with an innovative system that uses solar power to desalinise seawater. The system was experimented last year at Kiunga, a Kenyan fishing village on the coast facing the Indian Ocean and close to the border with Somalia. This system can produce around 70,000 litres of drinking water a day, enough to cover the needs of 35,000 people.
Solar powered water farms
According to the World Health Organisation, about 2.2 billion people around the world have no securely managed access to water. This is particularly the case for the inhabitants of poor and rural areas.
Desalinisation is a process in which salts and other minerals are separated from water, in this case made possible by a new technology called “solar powered water farms”. The system uses solar panels that generate 50 kW of energy that is then stored in two high performance Tesla batteries and used to power two water pumps that run 24 hours a day.
For the 3,500 inhabitants of Kiunga, a village located in an area stricken by drought for years, the advantages are enormous: clean and easily accessible water that replaces the poor quality water of a well located an hour away by foot.
Following the success of this pilot project at Kiunga carried out in 2019, GivePower plans to build new installations to relieve water shortages in other parts of the world, in particular in Haiti and Columbia.