IN THE STAR WARS MOVIE UNIVERSE, SPACE HERO LUKE SKYWALKER’S FAMILY SURVIVED ON THE INHOSPITABLE DESERT WORLD OF TATOOINE BY HARVESTING WATER FROM THE ATMOSPHERE. THAT TECHNOLOGY IS NO LONGER SCIENCE FICTION.
In Venice, California, at a company called Skysource, a machine named “Skywater” is being used to generate up to 150 gallons of clean water per day collected out of…well…not-so-thin air. The resulting water is provided free to the public at Venice Beach as a gift to the community, as well as to a local nonprofit, Community Healing Gardens, where it is used to grow vegetables.
Skysource is the brainchild of local architect David Hertz, a longtime advocate for recycling, and an innovator who has devised ways to reuse and repurpose building materials like concrete.
“When we started, this technology didn’t exist in California,” Hertz’s wife and partner Laura Doss-Hertz told the Messenger Mountain News.
When a client told Hertz about a new atmospheric water-condensing system created by a Florida inventor, it seemed too good to be true.
Solar water stills and devices to trap condensed water have been used for centuries, but without a power source the amount of water generated is limited, and many modern designs are not energy-efficient enough to be practical.
This machine, named “Skywater” by its inventor, uses a patented distillation process that maintains a constant dew-point temperature. Once the water is condensed, it’s filtered and treated with ozone. The machine extracts water continuously, even in relatively low-humidity conditions. Even the largest model, which generates up to 300 gallons of water a day, can be operated off solar panels for optimum energy efficiency.
“When we first saw it, it seemed like alchemy,” Hertz said. “We bought a 14-gallon Skywater machine, started bringing it to events and saw how water made from air changes people.”
A 150-gallon machine joined the first one. “We wanted to bring the community into this, so we created a bottle-filling station,” Doss-Hertz recalled. “In Venice, there’s not a lot of options for the homeless to have access to drinking water.”
A bold black-and-yellow mural, suggesting the stylized figures from an ancient Greek water vessel, decorates the “Wall of Water.” The stylized figures point the way to the bottle filling station.
Hertz selected a local street artist to create the artwork. The wall conveys the message that the “sky well,” which provides a 24-hour source of pure, free water, is a modern analogy for the springs that were so important for life in the arid Mediterranean that they were viewed as sacred.
“It’s never been graffitied,” Hertz said. “Everyone is so grateful for the water. Water should be a fundamental human right,” he said, “but it’s becoming the single most expensive necessity.”
Skywater machines are already in use in the local area, including Topanga and Malibu. Through Go Campaign, the nonprofit side of the organization, Skysource is also supplying machines to drought-stricken and disaster regions in Haiti and Africa.
Hertz said that he hopes to fund water projects in the third world with the help of sales to the first world. He explained that a solar-powered unit can provide “off-the-grid water” in almost any location.
“Each Skywater model produces gallons of fresh water per day, enough for a household or emergency relief efforts, and it can do so more efficiently than any other method of moisture extraction or filtration,” he said.
“Everyone needs water,” Doss-Hertz added. “That’s why we created our wall of love, but that’s only the beginning. It’s important to give back.”
