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  Business Times 21 Apr 07
Using solar power to treat water

DRINKING water in India's rural areas, which are not connected to central water distribution systems, could cost over $200 per cubic metre, because villagers have to bring water in by trucks, or rely on bottled supplies from Coke or Pepsi.

Singaporean entrepreneur Tan Sian Wee wants to address this by selling villagers solar- powered water treatment modules producing up to 200 litres of drinking water a day.

His vehicle? SolarSpring, a company he is in the process of starting up with German engineers, which uses the sun's heat to evaporate water through membranes. The aim is to treat water for about $20 per cubic metre, still more expensive than central water supplies but cheaper than what villagers now pay.

Mr Tan, 39, is setting up SolarSpring with two engineers from the Fraunhofer Institute, Joachim Koschikowski, 37, and Marcel Wieghaus, 30. He claims to be a Stanford-trained mechanical engineer and one-time inventor at Nasdaq- listed Immersion Corp, and who has spent the last four years in Germany working with Fraunhofer's various spin-offs.

SolarSpring has successfully tested its modules but needs to more than halve production costs from a current $12,000 per unit, he said. It has obtained letters of intent from two Indian state governments, and also wants to sell through Hyflux and Keppel Corp, said Mr Tan, who stayed tight-lipped about arrangements with the latter firms.
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