Water scarcity is a global issue that is becoming increasingly pressing, affecting over 40% of the world's population according to the United Nations. By 2050, it is predicted that more than 5 billion people will suffer from water shortages. Europe is not immune to this challenge, as one-third of its countries have limited access to water. The Mediterranean region in particular, experiences both, severe water scarcity and high demand for water. However, with effects of climate change and growing water demand, it is expected that other regions within the EU will also experience water shortage in the future.
To address the gap between water demand and availability, water supply managers must come up with sustainable and reliable alternative sources while improving resiliency of existing water supply infrastructure. One promising solution is the use of desalination technologies, particularly in coastal areas, since more than 40% of the EU population resides along a coast. Often however, traditional desalination technologies are expensive to implement and operate - making them unaffordable for smaller applications.
The W2W (Water-to-Water) desalination system provides a state-of-the-art solution to this challenge. Designed for use with renewable energy sources, it can provide access to clean water from seawater or brackish groundwater in a scalable and mobile form factor, that is easy to deploy even in remote areas. Its versatility also allows for various end-uses, such as delivering drinking water in low-income and developing countries, supporting disaster relief operations, or providing decentralised water supply in intensely touristic areas during dry seasons.
Rainmaker Holland is a Dutch SME that is dedicated to developing sustainable and decentralized water purification technologies to produce clean water. Its goal is to scale-up and validate the first W2W industrial units, which can provide up to 80 m3 of clean water daily. Their decentralized desalination units will be powered by renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, and can be adapted to different energy mixes (whether connected to a mixed electrical grid or run as the primary load for a standalone micro-grid). Rainmaker Holland aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of this system as a versatile and reliable platform solution to the global water scarcity challenge.
