“In this crazy world of guilt-ridden billionaires, extreme poverty and anxiety about climate change and the environment, its main product is emotional,” he said. Stating that the panels are paid for by donors, including finance institutions such as the Asian Development Bank, US AID and the Inter American Development Bank, Gasson added that Zero Mass Water “is not really in the business of selling water”. In a follow up article on LinkedIn, GWI publisher Christopher Gasson added that: “There is no place on earth where a hydropanel is the most cost-effective source of water.” The analysis reported that, as the unit produces 3.4 litres of water per day, it would cost $177,353 to meet a person’s daily needs (based on panels costing $3000, and providing 201 litres of water per day). It was referenced as an “incredibly inefficient means of making water” that has caught the “imagination of billionaire backers and ill-informed philanthropists”. In May, Global Water Intelligence (GWI) published an analysis of the technology. The panels essentially take in sunlight and air to create water from the atmosphere, adding minerals, ozonating and then storing the water ahead of its use.
With the promise to “do for drinking water what solar panels have done for electricity”, the ambitious Arizona-based start-up provides ‘Source Hydropanel’ technology. To others, a leader who is raising eyebrows of seasoned water practitioners by selling a technology with claims more akin to science fiction than reality. To some, CEO Cody Friesen is a charismatic idol with an answer to the world’s water problems.
Yet, the company, and the wider atmospheric water generation (AWG) technology, appears to be extremely divisive in the global water sector.
#MMASS OF WATER SERIES#
The Series C1 equity financing included Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which includes investors Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Michael Bloomberg. Zero Mass Water (ZMW) has fast-tracked its position as the poster-child of the air-to-water market, after securing $50 million investment from BlackRock. Zero Mass Water attracted $50m investment from BlackRock yet atmospheric water generation continues to be a divisive technology in the water sector.
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