Water, energy, and the internet - how a 15 ton "computer" provides access to all three

Clean water is universally recognised as an absolute necessity for human existence and a supply of electricity equally so for most societies. But increasingly, even in developing world environments, the same applies for the basics of information technology: computing, internet connectivity and mobile communications.

So three different problems requiring three different solutions?

Someone who put that question to themselves and decided the answer was 'no' is Marco Attisani, founder and CEO of Watly – a company which is developing a machine that it believes can satisfy all three of those requirements in a single integrated installation.

The machine eponymously called the Watly comprises a central array of solar panels connected to four wing units each of which houses a bank of vapour compression distillation tubes that can boil unsafe water from sources such as rivers and produce safe, clean water fit for human consumption.

But a crucial factor is that the energy used to drive that core water purification process is not the electricity generated by the panels. Instead, the process is driven by waste heat harvested from the panels by an air circulation system – an ingenious technique that Attisani describes as effectively self-powering. “It does not use any energy,” he confirmed.