Solar Water Solutions

It depends on the proximity of the installation site to the ocean. When the site is on the coast, we typically send the concentrate discharge back to the ocean. In these cases, we design a discharge pipeline that allows the concentrate discharge to slowly trickle back into the ocean across a greater distance than a simple open-ended pipe would allow. By designing discharge pipes in this way, the concentrate discharge mixes with the ocean very quickly and virtually eliminates any measurable effect on the surrounding environment.

In sites where direct access to the ocean is not available, the concentrate discharge is typically sent to a wastewater treatment plant or returned to the ground through an infiltration basin or injection well. These infiltration basins and injection wells are located a suitable distance from the intake well to avoid contaminating the feed water with the discharge water. The design of our water treatment also minimizes the impact on underground aquifers by limiting the concentration of the discharge water and the use of chemicals common in other RO systems. In most cases, the concentrate discharge contains nothing that was not already present in the raw feed water.

Concentrate discharge water isn’t harmful when it is handled properly. Because we typically do not add any chemicals to the water during the desalination process, the concentrate discharge is simply a more concentrated version of the same raw water source that we used at the start of the process.

Typical municipal seawater installations will have a concentrate discharge that is 200% the concentration of the original feed water source, and a volume of up to 8,000 m³ per hour. Our seawater Max systems are designed to only increase the concentration by 50%, and we discharge less than 6 m³ per hour. This allows the original source to absorb and dilute the discharge water effectively, leaving the source water virtually unchanged. By building small-scale, distributed infrastructure desalination systems, our concentrate discharge can be expected to have almost no measurable negative environmental impact. In regions where it is feasible and/or required, GivePower performs environmental impact studies annually to monitor the effects of our discharge pipelines on the local environment.

Our systems are designed specifically to operate without the need for chemical injection systems in the feed water or concentrate discharge pipes. This means that the water that is returned to the source during the process contains the same chemical and biological makeup as the source water. There are instances where the raw water is particularly challenging, and chemicals need to be introduced to protect the longevity of the system and ensure the community has access to the water. In these cases, great care is taken to make sure the products used will not harm the environment and are used as sparingly as possible.

This is an exciting time for technologies like ours. GivePower is one of the pioneers of solar-powered seawater desalination. Technology continues to develop rapidly: cell phones and cashless payment systems are now nearly ubiquitous, and a growing host of internet-connected devices — from inverters to flow meters — has come online. Battery and energy storage have advanced, pumps and motors have become more energy efficient and investment in the water industry has grown. Together, these shifts have only recently made a solution like ours possible.

The pace of implementation for the innovative technology of Solar Water Farm depends on the ease and flexibility of the enabling environment: local regulations, foreign direct investment restrictions, water consumption and collection habits, ambiguous land ownership and use rights, last mile distribution challenges and the added complexity of public-private partnerships. Through GivePower’s current installations and experience in scaling up in Kenya and Haiti, we are eager to engage with interested countries to expand scale and speed up installation through strong partnership with government and communities.

Desalination systems require routine maintenance and upkeep to stay operational and provide the highest quality water possible. To address this, GivePower has created a business model that creates a revenue stream to keep sites functioning at the highest level. Revenue collected from the sale of water covers system operations, maintenance, major repairs and distribution costs. Our affordable pricing model is typically equal to or less than existing untreated water sources.

However, GivePower’s contribution to the community is much more than the technology deployed. By establishing a local presence in the countries where we operate and employing local teams to run and maintain Solar Water Farms, we create permanent jobs and career development opportunities in technical, management and operational fields. The public-private partnership model is an effective way to ensure the community can be self-sufficient in providing access to safe water in a sustainable manner.