MIT created a solar-powered machine that turns saltwater into drinking water
Well, not really. It does work on brackish water, though, which is a good start
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/08/1383429/-MIT-created-a-solar-powered-machine-that-turns-saltwater-into-drinking-water
Solar-powered desalination projects are not new. But the size and practicality of this project is exciting—it's won the MIT team the USAID Desal Prize. The team will now continue testing the system against harsher and harsher conditions since the hopes are to employ these types of desalination systems throughout the world in troubled areas, similar to the ones that inspired this work.
The finished prototype is small enough to fit in a tractor-trailer and includes photovoltaic cells to supply the electricity. The system, when fully operational, can supply the basic water needs of a village of between 2,000 and 5,000 people, MIT officials said. Although the prototype was more expensive, Wright said the team is hopes to lower the costs of a village-sized unit to about $11,000.
Such a lower-power system is useful mainly for treating brackish water and not seawater, which contains far more salt. But the prototype now being tested could handle water that contains salt concentrations of up to 4,000 parts per million, meaning it would work in about 90 percent of India’s wells, Wright said. Seawater’s salt concentration averages about 35,000 parts per million.
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And here is a less shade tree version of the same thing.
