Perhaps, but I predict limited success. The article talks about being able to install these towers in a dessert and specifically talks about temperature variance, but low humidity environments would still have more lower yield. You can't make something just out of nothing.
It also seems like the fine Playa dust would be another negative. As any Burner will tell you, Playa gets into everything. I don't see any way to avoid getting Playa into the inner chamber which then would require further filtering and refinement to separate from the water.
The best use of this technology would be an environment where ground water isn't safe, but that has a high enough humidity to be able to yield a sufficient supply.
That being said, Burning Man would provide a suitable environment to push this to the extremes and see what it might be capable of. It would certainly help discover how it will break down.
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.
