A solar-powered solution filters through

18 November 2003

A solar-powered water filtration system, jointly developed by UNSW's Dr Bryce Richards and Dr Andrea Schafer of the University of Wollongong, has won second prize at the prestigious Energy Globe Awards competition.

The Reverse Osmosis Solar Installation, known as ROSI, could alleviate the scarcity of drinking water in remote communities and has taken second place in the water category of the sustainable energy competition, held in Austria last week. The Energy Globe Awards are given to projects from all over the world that contribute to the protection of the planet and its ecosystems. Dr Richards, from the Centre for Photovoltaic Engineering, originally started work on ROSI in his spare time during his PhD.

ROSI is a desalination system that could produce clean drinking water in a variety of remote locations in Australia, using solar energy without the addition of chemicals or producing pollution. Availability of drinking water in these remote communities is often dependent on external supplies once rainwater sources are exhausted. The current ROSI system is designed to remove pathogens, poisons, salt and other contaminants from brackish groundwater.

"There are about a billion people without access to clean water worldwide," Dr Richards said. "Hopefully, this research will enable us to bring help to the people who need it and whose lives it will change, whether that is in remote areas of Australia or in third world nations."

The Energy Globe Awards attract more than a thousand entrants each year from 95 countries. The judging panel was made up of representatives from the Electrical Power Research Institutes in the US, the European Renewable Energy Council, the Club of Rome and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Victoria.