Part of the playa environment would work in their favor (Cold at night, Warm in the day) - but there are two elements in the playa that would likely make these ineffective.
1. Playa Dust - that stuff gets in everything - and this water tower would be choked with the stuff almost immediately. Cleaning it would be challenge (to put it lightly
2. More problematically, the condensation tower/Air well works on the principle of collecting dew that forms on a low temperature substrate. The humidity near gerlach is close to 38 percent, and I don't recall ever seeing much in the way of condensation ever....
I wonder how many problems like his would also exist in a deployment in Ethiopia. Many problems seem much more complicated when you've encountered them firsthand.
1. Playa Dust - that stuff gets in everything - and this water tower would be choked with the stuff almost immediately. Cleaning it would be challenge (to put it lightly
2. More problematically, the condensation tower/Air well works on the principle of collecting dew that forms on a low temperature substrate. The humidity near gerlach is close to 38 percent, and I don't recall ever seeing much in the way of condensation ever....