Watly creators to seek public funding for development

Watly is hoping to raise an initial $75,000 through crowdfunding

Technology company Watly is set to launch a crowdfunding campaign for its water purification machine. The thermodynamic system uses solar energy to sanitise water and produce electricity for rural and remote communities. In addition to these two core functionalities Watly can also communicate wirelessly with external devices.

The system harnesses solar heat through vacuum tubes to purify water. This process also utilises graphene and the panels are patterned to maintain an efficient temperature, meanwhile; photovoltaic panels on top of the system are used to generate electricity. With these technologies the manufacturer claims that Watly can purify up to 5,000 litres of water a day and produce enough energy to sustain its internal electronics and recharge smaller electric devices.

Watly can be controlled and connected wirelessly to other devices, or another Watly, to create a network through 3G or 4G, satellite connection and radio link . According to the creators the machine will purify millions of litres of water, generate up to 1GWh of electricity and save up to 2,500 tons of greenhouse gas emissions over its 15-year life-span.

Following a successful run with a smaller version of the system Watly 2.0 in Abenta, a village in Ghana, the company plans to unveil the prototype of Watly 3.0 in September 2016. The manufacturer is now seeking public backing to advance the development of Watly 3.0 with a crowd funding campaign on Indiegogo, set to launch on 7 April 2016. It is hoping to raise an initial $75,000.

“Our experience in Ghana was truly eye-opening,” says Marco A. Attisani, chief executive and founder of Watly. “We knew the potential of our prototype Watly, but seeing it transform a village by providing easy access to basic resources made us really proud about what we are doing. On our planet we still have one billion people lacking clean water, two billion without electricity, and around five billion without connectivity. In this technological age, when we have so much capacity to provide solutions to these basic problems, these numbers are not acceptable anymore.

“The sun is an independent unlimited and apolitical source of energy available to entire humanity, unlike all other forms of energy. By using such a source to provide the three core pillars of civilisation, it allows the developing world to compete on an international stage. We are helping to provide the infrastructure so that they can support themselves moving forward. The interconnectivity is crucial to allowing communities to work together to grow their economies and as a reflex ours.”