Genius Watter: Double Award for Italian Organization
The Italian company – which has been working for several years in Africa with its innovative and sustainable technologies providing access to clean quality water using solar energy – has just won two important awards at the Afsia Solar Awards 2021: for the category “Solar Innovation of the year” and the “Lifetime Achievement of the year”, awarded to Co-Founder Franco Traverso Carmignano di Brenta (Padua) – 10 December 2021.
Genius Watter Srl is an innovative Italian company (unique in the country and among the very few in Europe) distinguished by a sustainable and ethical approach in solar reverse osmosis desalination projects which has, since 2018, been operating in emerging international markets. Its environmental commitment and expertise in technological innovation were rewarded with a double award at the recent edition of the AFSIA Solar Awards in London as part of the Africa Energy Forum. The company won the “Solar Innovation of the year” category for its solar reverse osmosis desalination technology, which provides clean water in areas without electricity, while President and Co-Founder Franco Traverso, won the “Lifetime Achievement” category for his 40 years of experience in the solar industry and his significant long-term contribution to the development of the African solar industry.
Franco Traverso is a leading figure in the world of renewable energy and has a long track record in photovoltaics, having been one of the first global pioneers in the 1980s. He has, in fact, built solar power plants in various African countries over the decades, meeting the demand for energy and clean water, in particular with the first solar and hybrid pumping systems, and more recently with Genius Watter technology. Above all, he has always wanted to work in a comprehensive manner, making his know-how available to local populations, creating skills directly on site.
To date, Genius Watter has, in particular, completed more than twenty zero-emission installations in Cape Verde, which have had a positive impact on the local area, agriculture and the local population.
At the end of 2020, a solar desalination plant was inaugurated in Varandinha, on the island of Boa Vista, to produce clean water for agricultural use and, in the near future, for domestic use by the community. Thanks to the intervention of Genius Watter, farmers of the area have been able to benefit from more productive land and have resumed raising livestock, with an immediate positive impact in terms of quantity and quality: not only has there been a 60% increase in production since the plant’s start-up and a doubling in the number of active farmers, but above all quality products, and a rich and constant production over time that has given new life to the local economy, which is now ready for new development.
Furthermore, consolidating its green positioning also in the tourism sector, Genius Watter has supported King Fisher Village, on the island of Santiago, transforming it into an eco-resort by creating a new energy and water efficiency system, with a zero-emission solar sustainability project that will cut operating costs by 85% and achieve a significant improvement in the quality of the water supplied, as well as reducing the consumption of water in plastic bottles.
Confirming the great commitment of Italian excellence in providing access to clean energy and water, in an environmentally, economically and socially sustainable manner, Genius Watter will soon be at the forefront of a new humanitarian project in Africa, in collaboration with the United Nations.
Genius Watter’s commitment to the Planet and its people is thus reconfirmed: providing access to clean water, in an affordable and sustainable way, wherever it is needed.
Source: Echo Group (Italy, December 15, 2021)
