Hydrovoltaics for Green Energy Production - I2I Market Assessment

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The research undertaken will be a market assessment of an emerging green energy technology. Imagine a power source that harnesses thermal energy, while generating power continuously, regardless of whether it is day or night, sunlight or dark, windy or perfectly calm. Imagine a technology that is incredibly simple and cheap to manufacture and requires little or no maintenance. Imagine no longer, hydrovoltaics is this technology. Water contains an incredible amount of energy, enough to meet the annual global energy demand three times over. Very little of this energy, however, is currently harnessed for use. In recent years, scientists have demonstrated that it is possible to obtain sustained energy from natural water evaporation processes.Hydrovoltaic devices can overcome many of the limitations associated with conventional and renewable energy sources. For example, solar cells have a large footprint and require sunlight to generate power. Conversely, hydrovoltaic devices take up very little area and can function in different weather conditions throughout the day to produce a comparable power output to commercial photovoltaics. Hydrovoltaics can be used to generate power anywhere evaporation is occurring. Hydrovoltaic devices generate sustained power by simple flow of water driven by evaporation and capillary action. TAs evaporation is ubiquitous and continuous, so to is this generation of power.This simplistic power generation means that such devices could be used to supply power in areas where power generation is difficult. The first hydrovoltaic device was reported in 2017, so the field is incredibly new. We have since fine-tuned devices and have achieved power outputs three orders of magnitude higher. However, while now competitive in power output (based on the same footprint of a device) this is not the end of the story; research is being conducted to improve the power output even further, able to generate large scale power into the grid!