IBM: Making water in the desert

Making water from sunlight

Over time there have been many plans to use the Middle East's large amount of sunlight to power solar projects to create energy for the region, but IBM and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) have come with a way of using solar power to create the most precious of all resources: water.

Working together to develop a desalination plant based in Al Khafji, powered by a new type of solar technology, IBM and KACST hope to be able to produce 7.9 million gallons of water a day that would supply 100,000 people.

But how are the two firms hoping to create literal rivers in the middle of the desert?

Solar powered water

The thing about the Middle East is while it may have limited water sources, it has an abundance of sunlight and as such, solar farms are ideal for the region, capable of beingbuilt in uninhabitable desert regions.

As desalination plants are famously energy-intensive, IBM and KACST hope to build a 10-megawatt solar farm, utilsing ultra-high concentrator photovoltaic arrays, for the plant in order to drastically reduce the electricity costs.

By capturing the sunlight and concentrating it onto a solar cell, it will multiple the sun's power by 1,500 times boosting power and efficiency - the ultra-high concentrator photovoltaic arrays are said to be three times more affective than photovoltaic panels currently in operation around the world.
 
How does it achieve this? With a “liquid metal thermal interface”, which acts as a heat sink to cool off the high temperatures created by the photovoltaic system.

Speaking to Green Inc., Sharon Nunes , vice president of IBM’s Big Green Innovations division said, “The solar component is something we’ve been implementing and that we have done testing on for the past two years,” Ms. Nunes said. “We’re quite confident with the results.”

While IBM has not revealed how affective the solar farm could be, KACST has been waxing lyrical about the potential for the desalination plant. Saudi Arabia is already a world leader in producing desalinated water, but the leaders at KACST want to bring down the cost.

Speaking to IBM's Smarter Planet blog, Dr. Turki Al Saud, vice president for research institutes, KACST said, "We want to create a cluster of companies in the kingdom, and take this technology and market it around the world.”

"Today’s plants produce water for up to US$1.50 per cubic meter. The goal here is to bring the price down significantly enough to radically change the water supply situation worldwide. An estimated 1.2 billion people in 40 countries do not have access to safe water."

Chandrasekhar (Spike) Narayan, who leads the Science and Technology Organization at IBM’s Almaden Research Center summed up the plant's potential better by saying, "We can conceivably create a river of fresh water in countries that don't have rivers - water for the masses at reasonable costs."

So how soon until we see this miracle plant? If everything goes well, as soon as later this year.

Relevant articles:

Could Africa power the world with solar power? | Africa: The renewable power house| Saudi Arabia puts $53bn into water projects

Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

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