In remote desert locations, at least two things are likely to be lacking: an electrical grid, and a source of water for agriculture. An experimental new system addresses both problems, by combining photovoltaic panels with an absorbent hydrogel.
Developed by scientists at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), the setup is known as the integrated water-electricity-crop co-production system – or WEC2P, for short.
It incorporates an array of connected photovoltaic panels, each one of which lies directly atop a layer of hydrogel. Both the panel and the gel form the lid of a downward-sloping metal box, which has a spout at the bottom.
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