In the Aegean Sea, between Greece and Turkey, there are hundreds of Greek islands. Many of them are quite big, such as Crete, Rhodes, Lesvos, and are able to collect enough water for their inhabitants. However, most of them are small in area and waterless, especially at summer when their water sources get dry. As a result, the water runs out and unfortunately the only possible solution is the transfer of water from the inland Greece with ships, which is as expected not cheap.

      The solution of desalination has been widely studied but it is considered to need too much energy, and the main source of energy in most of the islands is oil.

      In 2007, an interesting experiment took place in a Greek island, Heraclea. A floating desalination engine was installed. It consisted of a desalination unit, a wind turbine and a solar system which are responsible for the production of the energy needed.

      It is commonsense that this device requires solar energy as well as wind power in order to be effective, but there is a plenty of them in Greek islands during all year, especially in summer. In addition, as it expected, it does not pollute the environment as it uses green energy. Also it could be installed even in a sea of great depth due to its ability to float. The brine produced by the desalination unit, is not harmful for the environment while the water produce potential or this device is over 80m³ per day. Also, the quality of the water which comes out of it is considered to be high.

      This device, produced potable water for almost 5 years, but the last 2 years it has been abandoned. This happened because of some technical issues which provoked, and the insufficiency of funds for the repair and for further Research and Development.

      In my opinion, devices like this can be a very good solution for remote islands or isolated areas generally. However, in order for them to develop, improving their qualities, there must be a bigger scale of investments.

      I hope that funds will be found through investments for the development of such environmentally friendly technologies which will be able to create new products to benefit our society.