A new technology promises to suck water vapor out of the air and turn it into water that we can drink. How do they work and are these worthy investments?

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

Recently, we got a question from a listener who has heard about hydropanels, a technology that pulls clean water out of thin air. Frank wants to know — How do they work? And are there any downsides to using them?

We had Isha Thakkar and Emma Mejia from our Possibly Team look into this.

Isha Thakkar:  Hi, Megan!

Emma Mejia:  Hello!

Megan Hall:  What’s that sound?

Isha Thakkar:  That’s a hydropanel!

Megan Hall: So, what are these devices that pull water out of the air?

Emma Mejia: To answer this question, we talked to Alex Meyer.

Alex Meyer: I’m Alex Meyer, I’m a professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Isha Thakkar: He says a hydropanel…

Alex Meyer: sucks moisture out of the air, and turns it into liquid, so that you can drink it.

Megan Hall: Sort of like a dehumidifier combined with a water purifier?

Emma Mejia: Like that, but it’s connected to a solar panel so it runs on renewable electricity.

Isha Thakkar: But it’s hard to know exactly how these machines work. That’s because the only information we could find about Hydropanels was from Source, the company that makes them. And, they don’t share all of the details.

Megan Hall: Noted. So based on what you could find, how much water can these hydropanels suck out of the air?

Emma Mejia: Currently, each hydropanel is about 4 by 7 feet, and can produce up to a gallon and a half of clean drinking water each day.

Megan Hall: Can people rely on that every day? Even during really hot weather?

Isha Thakkar: Well, the company says hydropanels work on dry days or humid days. In fact, they say hydropanels can even produce water in the Sonoran Desert, where the air is so dry that dehumidifiers don’t work.

Emma Mejia: But it would definitely take more energy to get water out of dry air.

Isha Thakkar: And because they run on solar power, on cloudy days, or at night, they wouldn’t work as well (or at all) unless they also have a battery.

Megan Hall: When the hydropanels suck water out of the air on dry days, is any moisture left in the atmosphere?

Isha Thakkar: Well there’s a lot of water in the air. The company that sells hydropanels, says it would take at least 70,000 hydropanels per person on Earth to change the humidity of the air itself.

Megan Hall: Whoa! So we don’t have to worry about that. How much does a hydropanel cost?

Emma Mejia: Each hydropanel goes for $3000.

Megan Hall: That seems like a lot of money for a gallon and a half of water.

Isha Thakkar: For now that’s definitely true. Alex was skeptical of hydropanels at first. But then he considered what it takes to hook people up to permanent sources of water, like water lines.

Alex Meyer: The expense of building a formal water system is very, very expensive, expensive enough, it is difficult to get loans.

Emma Mejia: So in some cases, hydropanels could help isolated communities access just enough water to drink. As Alex says,

Alex Meyer: It’s a freedom, you know, to not worry about where her next drinking water is going to come from? Or it’s safety.

Isha Thakkar: But the price would have to come down a lot before that happens.

Emma Mejia: In the meantime, think of these as a cool idea for getting water.

Megan Hall: Thanks, Isha and Emma!

That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to askpossibly.org Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or X at  “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

The post Should we use hydropanels to pull clean water out of thin air? appeared first on TPR: The Public’s Radio.

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For decades now, people have been installing solar panels, wind turbines and more to transition our energy to renewable sources – but we wondered, how’s it going? We turned to California’s electric grid for answers.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

If you only know one thing about climate change, it’s probably that we need to stop using fossil fuels and switch to renewable energy.

For decades now, people have been installing solar panels and wind turbines trying to do just that – but we wondered, how’s it going? Are we actually close to powering our world without coal, gas or oil?

We had Nat Hardy from our Possibly Team look into this.

Nat Hardy: Hi, Megan!

Megan Hall: So how are we doing? Are we close to switching to renewable energy?

Nat Hardy: So the answer is a little different depending on where you live. The US doesn’t have one big electric grid, so different regions and states all use different amounts of renewable energy. But some places are doing really well!

A great example is California. The state has been a leader in renewables for a long time, but this spring they’ve hit some really impressive milestones.

On almost every day from March to the start of June this year, California was able to power the whole state with renewable energy – at least for part of the day.

Megan Hall: Really? That’s amazing

Nat Hardy: It’s pretty impressive! So to learn more, I talked to Elliot Mainzer, the CEO of California’s Independent System Operator. They’re the group that manages the electricity market and the electricity infrastructure for most of the state.

Elliot Mainzer: There are days, particularly in the springtime, when there’s a lot of sun, quite a bit of wind, the hydro system is starting to ramp up, when the amount of renewables that’s on our grid can actually meet all or even more of the total consumer demand inside the state.

Nat Hardy: California has made this happen by building tons of solar panels – about 25 percent of the US’s solar capacity is in California.

Megan Hall: And those solar panels have helped power the entire state the past 3 months?

Nat Hardy: Well they’ve powered the state for part of the day, over those three months.

Megan Hall: What do you mean?

Nat Hardy: So an important thing to know about energy is that traditionally, you need to use the electricity you make, right away. And this can be a little tricky for renewable energy like solar and wind.

Megan Hall:  Because the sun only shines during the day?

Nat Hardy: Exactly. So during the day they have lots of electricity to use, sometimes even more than they need. But at night, they’ve had to fall back on fossil fuels – mostly natural gas.

Megan Hall: Can they save that extra solar energy somehow? Or does it just go to waste?

Nat Hardy: Well they are able to save some of it! In the past,  you needed to use electricity right away – but new developments in batteries are starting to change that. And California has built lots of them.

Elliot Mainzer: Those batteries absorb a lot of that extra solar during the day. And then in the evening, as the sun is coming down, but there’s still a high demand for electricity, they inject their power back into the system. It’s almost a perfect match.

Nat Hardy: Because of the batteries, California has been able to use less natural gas during the evenings. For the first time this year, there have been moments where batteries provide more power than gas!

Megan Hall: So what does this all mean? Is California close to running on just renewable energy?

Nat Hardy: They still have a way to go. They’ve been able to power the state with renewables during the spring, when conditions are just right.

Megan Hall: So later in the year,  they’ll use more fossil fuels?

Nat Hardy: Unfortunately yes. And if you average it out, over a full year, 47% of California’s energy comes from renewables. So if they want to get to 100%, they’ll have to make more energy and battery technology will need to get better. But Elliot says he’s optimistic:

Elliot Mainzer: If you had asked me to try to predict all the things that are going on in the grid today, 25 years ago, I would have been so far off, so it’s going to be a very innovative and creative next couple decades.

Megan Hall: Okay but how’s the rest of the country doing?

Nat Hardy: Nationally only about a quarter of our energy comes from renewables.  But even that number is way up from a decade ago.

Megan Hall: And where we’re from, in New England…?

Nat Hardy: Only about 14% renewable. So we have work to do. But other states are showing this transition is possible, and they’re demonstrating how to get there.

Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks Nat!

That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to askpossibly.org Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or X at  “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

The post Are we close to 100% renewable energy? appeared first on TPR: The Public’s Radio.

The post Are we close to 100% renewable energy? appeared first on Possibly.