Water from sun: an energy conservation initiative for smart cities

Energy saving initiatives are acquiring great attention in all smart cities. The key factor for smart cities is to make human life contented by adopting energy conservation means. The most crucial resource in the current century has been the eater resource. Energy and water, although not identifiable, are very much intertwined. To generate electrical power as well as liquid fuels water is used in great amounts. Also, to produce safe and clean drinkable water a large amount of energy is required. This defines that water and energy are intertwined through a nexus called the water-energy nexus. This water-energy nexus has been a thing of concern for many governments and industries around the globe. This paper addresses the water-energy nexus and attempts to provide a solution for the energy wasted on producing bottled water and its consumption on large scale in cities. Around 3-3.5 MJ energy is expended to produce a half litre of bottled water. Use of hydropanel for production of clean and safe potable water is the solution for energy conservation. The hydropanels can be off grid and self-contained solution for producing clean and safe potable water from air and sunlight. Application of hydropanels to produce clean drinking water using solar energy has been investigated in this paper. The possibility of using hydropanels at College of Engineering-National University of Science and Technology, Muscat-Oman is studied, and it has been shown that 120 hydropanels should be installed and used on the campus for meeting the needs for the campus. These hydropanels will be able to produce 1200 litres of water per day. The institution will reach the investment breakeven in just 17 months and will further start benefiting until the end of hydropanel’s lifetime of 15 years. During this time, the college will be able to save 8,069,760 kWh of energy.