Hardware Podcasts

HIBT Lab! SOURCE Global: Cody Friesen

How I Built This · 15 Sept 2022 · 38m

What this episode covers

Cody Friesen, founder and CEO of SOURCE Global, explains how his Arizona-based company uses hygroscopic nanomaterials and solar energy to extract drinking water from atmospheric humidity, creating 'hydropanels' that produce up to 5 liters per day. Friesen details the thermodynamic principles behind the device, the choice of materials that concentrate vapor 10,000 times, and the company's strategy to become the world's first renewable, fully-digitized drinking water utility. He discusses the business model, which includes selling panels directly for around $2,000 and offering water-as-a-service contracts to institutions like the Navajo Nation, while addressing the challenge of high initial costs against the long-term value of decentralized water access.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
SOURCE Global, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Fifth Wall, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund
Products
hydropanel
Also
Cody Friesen, Navajo Nation, Bill Gates

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