Tuesday, October 23, 2018

XPRIZE Awards $1.75M In Water Abundance XPRIZE

Los Angeles-based XPRIZE has made a grand prize award in one of its challenges, the $1.75M Water Abundance XPRIZE, to a local, Venice Beach based team. According to the XPRIZE Foundation, it awarded $1.5M to the Skysource / Skywater Alliance team, which has developed technology which wrings water out of thing air. XPRIZE said that Skysource / Skywater's device is able to extract 2,000 liters of water per day from thin air, using 100% renewable energy, at a cost of no more than two cents per liter. The XPRIZE Foundation also said it has awarded a Haawaiian team, JMCC Wing, with $150,000 to acknowledge that team's development of a "unique technological approach" to the challenge.

The Water Abundance XPRIZE was funded by the Tata Group and Australian Aid. The award appears to be one of the fastest resolution of a challenge in recent years; a significant number of prior challenges have gone unawarded when teams did not meet all of the requirements. On the other hand, SkySource / Skywater Alliance has already moved on to full scale production of its systems; the company advertises on its website that one of its customers is Snapchat's Evan Spiegel, who apparently has installed one of the systems for his wife, model Miranda Kerr; SkySource says the system installed there produces enough water for showers, drinking water, irrigation, and a waterfall that cascades into a koi pond.

SkySource / Skywater Alliance's technology revolves around a piece of equipment which it says condenses water from the air, by using refrigeration to chill the air to the dew point; the company sells units which look much like an air conditioner, and produce from 30 gallons to 300 gallons a day of water.