Solar-powered innovation has shown year-long stability with zero utility energy costs, thanks to a new type of photothermal material
NEW: Move over, bottled water – China’s new solar tech just made desalination cheaper.
✅ Chinese researchers have developed a photothermal material that weaves nanoparticles into a 3D evaporation structure, dramatically boosting solar desalination efficiency.
✅ The breakthrough absorbs 90.2% of solar energy while slashing energy consumption by 45.7%.
✅ In year-long outdoor trials, the prototype ran entirely on sunlight—no grid power, no fossil fuels—and successfully irrigated five square meters of farmland through a full growth cycle. Zero energy costs. Zero emissions. Just the sun.
✅ The cost of producing fresh water is already below the price of bottled water—and the advantage only grows with scale.
A Chinese research team has developed a solar-powered seawater desalination system that could produce drinking water at a lower cost than bottled water.
Researchers from the Institute of Process Engineering (IPE) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shenzhen University developed the technology, which uses sunlight instead of electricity to convert seawater into fresh water.
The study, published in the journal Advanced Materials on June 21, tackles one of desalination’s biggest obstacles: the high energy required to produce fresh water. Most desalination plants rely on reverse osmosis, a process that uses electricity to force seawater through membranes that allow water molecules to pass while blocking salt.
The Chinese team instead embedded nanoparticles into a three-dimensional photothermal material that absorbs sunlight and converts it into heat, allowing seawater to evaporate and condense into fresh water without drawing electricity from the power grid.
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A person drinks water from a bottle. Illustration from Pexels |
Laboratory tests showed the material achieved a solar absorption rate of 90.2% while reducing the energy needed to evaporate the same amount of seawater by 45.7% compared with conventional methods.
In a field trial, the system produced more than 20 liters of fresh water a day using only natural sunlight, enough to meet the basic daily drinking needs of about 10 people. The water met World Health Organization drinking-water standards, IPE said in a press release, according to the South China Morning Post.
It also irrigated a five-square-meter plot of farmland throughout an entire growing season without external power.
Based on a projected two-year operating period, the researchers estimated that producing fresh water would cost less than bottled water and the cost advantage would become even greater if the system were deployed on a larger scale or operated over longer periods.
IPE said the team is working to improve condensation efficiency and reduce system costs as it seeks to scale up the technology for water-scarce coastal areas, islands and remote regions.
The development comes as China expands its use of marine resources, including seawater desalination.
China’s seawater desalination capacity has surpassed 3 million metric tons per day, enough to meet the daily household water needs of about 15 million people, according to China Daily citing a report released earlier this month by the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The report said China had 167 seawater desalination projects operating in 2025 with a combined daily capacity of 3.077 million metric tons, up 221,000 metric tons from the previous year.
