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Young Champions of the Earth: Peru’s elemental innovator
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A Peruvian biologist and inventor who is turning wind into water has been named as a winner of an annual UN environmental award.
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Max Hidalgo is a recipient of UNEP’s Young Champions of the Earth award for 2020.UNEP
Max Hidalgo has adapted a wind turbine to condense vapour from air to produce water for vulnerable communities affected by climate change in Peru.
The technology he has developed at a cost of $70,000 per unit can provide a village of a hundred people with the water they need to survive; it’s estimated that establishing a piped supply to the same community would cost up to $1 million.
Max Hidalgo is one of seven innovators who have been recognized as United Nations Environment Programme’s Young Champions of the Earth for 2020.