Business Insider

Business Insider
A set of ghostly, futuristic sails could help save California from drought
October 6, 2016
By Dana Varinsky

"Sails are one of the earliest ways humans seized the power of wind — people were using them to move boats across the sea even before the Middle Ages.

A new design aims to apply that ancient technology to modern environmental challenges.

Regatta H2O: Familiar Form, Chameleon Infrastructure is the winner of a site-specific environmental competition called the Land Art Generator Initiative. The design proposes to repurpose the iconic maritime shape to harvest clean water in addition to wind.

Regatta H2O — which was named the first place winner on October 6 — features a set of 44 sails made of a high-tech fog-harvesting mesh material. The sails would stand alone in the ocean (no boats necessary), where air is moist and fog is common. Veins in the sails' surfaces would serve as moisture collection troughs, funneling the collected water to a central mast, which would in turn pump the liquid to a set of storage vessels on the shore."

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