We started out with a machine that produced 100 liters of drinking water per hour and now we are at 100,000 to 300,000 liters per hour. On sunny days it can run for 10 hours and that produces a lot of water.

In the world, there are only five companies manufacturing solar water desalination systems – us being the biggest. It was a big jump for us in terms of the number of installations, size of installations, volume of water production and the diversity of products and services we cover. At first, we focused only on drinking water. Now we added three more lines into a production: Irrigation, fish farming and sanitation. What I see in the future for Boreal Light in the coming years, is that we would have a lot more irrigation water projects. The need for irrigation is growing very fast.

“Our vision is to be in 50 countries around the world by 2030.”

The majority of the installation market is in Sub-Sahara Africa. We started in Kenya and then from Kenya we started to grow. And the facility we built in Kenya is covering the facilities in West Africa and South Africa, the machines of Botswana, Somalia, Namibia, Somaliland, Senegal, Ghana they are all installed with a team that is based in Nairobi. We built a very strong team there. And then the recent development of Boreal Light - it's been less than two years - is Latin America. We are growing now in Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Mexico. Colombia received most of her machines in the region.

In Europe we have the Ukraine project, a landmark project. It's Europe's largest solar water desalination system. In the second week of war, when the pipelines towards Ukraine were bombarded, a strategic city called Mykolaiv lost all its drinking water. So, we installed a machine that is delivering water to half a million people a day.

Starting from 2025, I believe the biggest growing market for us would be Southern Europe: Spain, Italy, Spain, Malta, Greece. They face the same problem with fresh water shortage as Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. The only difference is that in Europe usually electricity is available, but it’s often expensive. It makes a lot of sense to go for solar water treatment.

We keep speaking about only energy. And many of the solutions we are bringing are yet focused on the traditional way of looking at energy.

“We fail to notice that the ground is shifting. One of these ground shifting events is the need of water treatment around the world.”

The need for water treatment keeps growing quickly and it needs energy. The role of this energy is largely neglected. The water sector’s energy intensity is very high, a constant consumption. Climate change is showing its impacts visibly. I think there is no way to ignore it - the hidden energy in the water sector. The growing demand is nullifying all the efforts we are putting on energy efficiency or reducing consumption.

Often, we as a solar water desalination system company, it felt as if we are an orphan - always moving. We are a solar company but not fully solar. We are a water company, but not fully water.

“The link between 6 and 7 usually is neglected.”