SolarRay: A Low Cost Solar-Powered System for Water Purification

Rishi Myneni et al.
Wed, 29 Apr 2026 15:10:00 PDT

SolarRay provides an affordable and innovative solution to the global clean water crisis. Over 2 billion people in arid and impoverished areas lack reliable access to clean water for daily needs such as drinking and hygiene. Modern methods for water purification, such as using wood as fuel to boil the water, can use up to 20% of a family's income. They also often require physical labor and can lead to environmental issues, such as carbon dioxide emissions. To solve these problems, we propose a product which focuses the sunlight from 1 square foot area down to a small point, allowing that point to reach extremely high temperatures. This will be used to boil the contaminated water, after which the purified water vapor will be condensed into a separate container without any of the impurities in it like salt and toxic metals. With our process, one unit could purify around a liter of water every minute, and could eliminate 99.9% of all impurities in the water. Thus, it would be extremely fast and effective. Even with this incredible performance, it would still be very cheap and low-maintenance, as it mainly consists of a small lens or mirror to focus the sunlight along with pipes to direct the water and water vapor, and can run on its own when sunlight is present. We will partner with local governments and NGO's like Water for People, and host water kiosks and outreach programs to set up these units in areas in need. Our funding would come from fundraisers and grants, while our cost structure would focus on the production of our purification systems. We would make sure to keep strong community connections with the people we serve, so that we could provide the most help and value possible to them.