Wind Turbine Produces 1,500 Liters of Water a Day from the Atmosphere

WMS1000 Turbine Cross Section Drawing

"Give us wind, we give you water."

That's the slogan of  Eole Water, the French company that has developed a wind turbine able to condense up to 1,500 liters of clean water a day right out of thin air. The WMS1000 system is self-contained: the water condenser unit is powered by an internal wind-driven generator. In addition to water, it produces 30kW of electricity.  


A prototype in Dubai is currently producing 62 liters of water an hour. The highest output is obtained in humid environments, such as coastal areas. 

The system is designed to be highly reliable in harsh environments, with a service life of twenty years. The hydraulic mast on which it is mounted is easily raised and lowered for maintenance operations, so there is no need for heavy lifting equipment. Individual system installations will cost between $660,000 to $790,000. Deployments of the WMS1000 will begin later this year.

There is a desperate, crying need  in many places around the world  for economical, reliable technologies that will give people access to clean water: It is estimated that 1.1Billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, and that as many as 2Million die each year from diseases contracted from contaminated water. Ironically, the earth's atmosphere is a huge reservoir of water vapor. What we've lacked is a means of tapping into it... Eole Water may have solved the problem, though the jury is still out, and perhaps it will be several years before we will know if the WMS1000 is at least one viable answer to the clean water crisis.

Note: The minimum average human requirement for drinking water is estimated at three liters per day. So, a system providing 1,500 liters a day could meet the drinking water needs of up to 500 people. Additional water is needed for various sanitation purposes, of course, so the total human need for water is more on the order of fifty liters per day.

Peter Diamandis and Steve Kotler have some interesting information on this subject in their new book, Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think.