Part 2 – The Desert Still

So what does moonshine have to do with the stillness of the desert? As I crawl through the attic on my way to the secret room I think of booze, the forbidden treat of adults that makes them act like kids. The act of distilling is to separate mixtures by heating, used to create gasoline, alcoholic beverages and water from salt water. If there was a plentiful supply of salt water, sunshine and land, couldn’t a solar still create abundant water cheaply.

“Oh no!’ my father would say, “it is very expensive and impractical. Desalination is energy intensive and difficult”. Kinda like protecting a city that is below sea level or farming dependent on gasoline and pesticides. My dad wouldn’t understand that in my world, anything was possible and everything was simple.

OK, so lets make a still in the desert by the ocean. The ocean water will come into a big flat area at high tide through a pipe. There will be a simple plastic shed above the water. When the sun comes up the water evaporates and some of it condenses down the side into gutters where it flows down to the local coffee shop but most of the humid warm air rises by convection through ducts in the top of the shed(s) and travels to the nearby hill where it condenses into a reservoir. In the evening the water is released downhill to irrigate fields and as it burbles down it happens to rub against little efficient generators that supply some electrical power to the farmers. Maybe pump some water from the local coffee shop to the reservoir thereby creating a natural energy storage capacity.

Hmmm, pretty simple yet…“It’ll never work, who’ll pay for it…” you say. Easier than shooting a space shuttle into the sky and a LOT cheaper.

But as I reached the secret room and relax in the fullness of the brilliance streaming through the little window above the porch I think; “this idea will have to wait, they believe in solving the problems they see, not playing and creating a new magical world”.

Next: Part 3 – The Shelf of Great Ideas