Desert Water Harvester

(Published Sept. 15th, 2025)

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Greetings Mr. Elon Musk, I trust you are doing well. This letter is in regards to a potential means for harvesting pure drinking-water, which ideally - is powered solely by the sun. I refer to this unique system as the Desert Water Harvester since it’s desert-like conditions which make it the most practical. Basically, it’s analogous to an oasis in the midst of a desert.

I thought it only appropriate to send you this information, not only due to your obvious compassion towards humanity, but also because of your talented ways of blending differing technologies. I believe that the information herein aligns with at least a couple of your more ambitious endeavours, hopefully you will tend to agree.

I can assure you that there are absolutely no expectations from myself for you to reciprocate in any form or fashion, and you are perfectly free to use this information however you see fit. Further, I don’t have any products to sell, nor am I affiliated with any company nor representative who could potentially benefit from releasing this information.

In addition, this information has been forwarded to yourself due to the fact that you are both owner and director of The Boring Company. The basis of this letter, has tremendous potential for opening up a totally new-market for The Boring Company, and perhaps even others of which you are an integral part. It likely won’t take you long to realize that this project’s potential is not limited to merely earth-bound endeavours.

INTRODUCTION

Although there are a few crucial pieces of information herein, for the most part - what I’m about to describe can be built upon technology which already exists. Nonetheless, there will certainly be challenges ahead in order to determine the correct-blend of “conventional” technologies. As well, this project has potential for developing patentable technologies which could be more exotic in fashion.

In a nutshell, this Desert Water Harvester (DWH) creates pure drinking-water directly from (potentially) contaminated-water without the use of chemicals. Energy-wise, the vast portion of its process is garnered directly from the sun’s rays.

As a first step, this unique system requires a totally-level tunnel bored to a depth that taps into the local water-table. Once the underground-water saturates the tunnel’s length, the DWH takes advantage of this reservoir's enormous surface-area for natural evaporation. A dynamic air-flow through the tunnel, is the primary-means for extracting and delivering water-vapour. Under the appropriate conditions, this water-vapour subsequently produces pure-water condensate.

The main focus of this project, hinges upon the fact that pure drinking-water can be efficiently harvested by controlling the environment of two natural processes: EVAPORATION and CONDENSATION. In so doing, the water extracted from the air should be totally clean regardless of probable contaminants within the original ground-water. Now, although observing water as it evaporates and condenses is typically like watching paint dry - this DWH will be much more dynamic.

One of the great advantages of the DWH, is the fact that it can be used in areas where shallow wells are no longer feasible due to contaminated ground-water. Hence, it can be used alongside farmlands which create harmful runoffs from chemical-fertilizers, manure, and the like.

Furthermore, since ground-water can naturally seep into a horizontal-tunnel which covers a fairly-large geographical area… spotty water-production from vertical wells may be avoided. Obviously, a ground-water assessment would have to be completed before installing a tunnel-based water-harvester, and one which is somewhat vertically-challenged (depth-wise) when compared to conventional wells.

Since this Desert Water Harvester can be installed alongside farmlands, it can be used as a source for their livestock’s drinking-water. For interest’s sake, a single-head of cattle requires approximately twenty US-gallons of water per day. Due to human activities such as showers, toilets, laundry and such; humans require at least two or three times as much potable-water than cattle. These are merely ball-park estimates.

Notably, it’s easier to estimate a cattle’s daily-consumption of water than that of a human, since human water-consumption varies depending upon one’s culture and cost of supply.

Given the proper amount of real-estate, a DWH could also easily supplement a city’s water-supply. Perhaps an ideal location for one of these systems is alongside a sprawling suburban housing-development. Theoretically, one of these water-harvesters could produce perfectly pure-water, even if it was installed alongside a waste-water treatment-facility.

Energy-wise, this Desert Water Harvester could ideally be 100% powered by the sun’s rays. It’s realistic to assume that a mature DWH could deliver drinking-water at its full-capacity, even if there were a power-outage upon the local-grid. Notably, the DWH is quite efficient because it's not chemically creating H2O, but is merely purifying water through a series of physical-state transitions. While so doing, its molecular contaminants remain behind.

The following items are what I perceive to be the DWH's primary components. The last-two items on the list are add-ons to the basic system.

FIRSTLY, a completely-level bored-tunnel of sufficient length and diameter is required to extract seeping water from the local water-table. Other than nuclear-waste perhaps, the initial quality of the water is virtually insignificant.
SECONDLY, a large glass-building which harnesses energy from the sun, is erected directly over the tunnel. The connection between the tunnel and the building is simply a vertical-shaft. Diameter wise, this shaft’s opening is comparable to that of the tunnel. Whereas this glass-building contains the bulk of the water-harvesting equipment, and might be compared to an oversized greenhouse - its functions and features are vastly different. In addition to the sun being harnessed by photovoltaics to electrify the DWH; the sun’s rays provide energy for the evaporation-process, various air-currents, and differential temperatures.
OPTIONALLY, a gravity-fed water-distribution system can be added to the initial DWH. This water-distribution-system utilizes a rather large water-tower as well as pumps and instrumentation which fill and monitor the tower. If properly engineered, I believe that any undue chemicals added to the drinking-water (such as chlorine) will depend more upon the design of the water-distribution system, than the DWH itself.
POTENTIALLY, a bio-dome could be added to the DWH for growing crops and vegetables. Due to the cooling-effect of green-plants in addition to having these same plants producing gobs of oxygen from CO2 - a thriving bio-dome benefits the water-harvester itself. Although plants absorb water from the ground, they also release moisture back into the air (transpire). Further, plants not only absorb CO2, but atmospheric-toxins as well. I wasn’t aware of this previously, but certain plants are known for absorbing VOCs like benzene and formaldehyde. Unfortunately, due to potential infestation of bugs and bacteria, this bio-dome would likely have to be segregated from most areas of the DWH. At the moment, we can only ponder about implications of such an installation.

Note, that at this early-stage I’m envisioning this project as an EXPERIMENTAL PILOT-PLANT. The flexibility of its base-system allows for easy expansion and a generous-array of options. Basically, this document outlines how I perceive to be a practical path forward, and certainly doesn’t take into account factors of which I am likely totally ignorant of. Further, there are likely no right or wrong answers at this point in time, it’s just that some approaches could be more efficient and/or practical than others.

As far as this project’s topology goes, differing physical-arrangements between a possible secondary-tunnel and likewise further glass-buildings are perfectly acceptable. In addition, although each installation (site) requires a perfectly-level tunnel, connecting tunnels of varying depths is quite doable. In fact, I’m sure that at certain sites, having a combination of tunnels with varying-depths would likely be the preferred topology.

Elon, please note; that at the moment - the remainder of this document which gets into certain technical aspects, is a work in progress. It is now about 90% complete. If you wish, you can certainly access the remainder and read it through as time permits. In the meantime, the following two drawings should give you the gist of the system.