When I was a young lad in the 1970’s my parents drove us up to visit my aunt who lived north of San Francisco on the Marin Headlands. On the way we passed a long, white canvas wall running across the mountain sides of Marin. My dad explained it was art. As we drove I watched the wall disappear and then reappear from the fog. In the not so distant future walls like that one may again dot the Marin Headlands north of San Francisco. Not as art this time though, but to harvest the moisture in the fog.
South of Lima Peru the village of Bellavista is the testing ground for an innovative new idea, fog harvesting. When dense fog sweeps in from the Pacific Ocean, special nets cause the moisture in the air to condense and then collect in water collection tanks.
Though not yet feasible on a large scale, the nets, designed by German conservationists Kai Tiedemann and Anne Lummerich, have helped provide Bellavista with hundreds of gallons of water each day during the foggy months.
Could something like this be used in San Francisco or Marin where fog is a frequent visitor? Sure. I don’t see why not. Maybe some day we’ll have “fog farms” the way we have “wind farms”.
If you’d like more information on this innovative way to harvest water from fog check out the article and photo gallery on NationalGeographic.com
