Artemis Water Strategy

Water resilience for a thirsty future

Jul 27 2010

Market Driven Tree Hugging

A helicopter pours water on Californian wildfires in 2009 / Photo: kevindean on flickr
A number of small buckets of water can contain a wildfire / Photo: kevindean on flickr

Climate legislation in the United States just went up in a cloud of CO2. Again.

Which doesn’t for one second mean the battle is lost.

Regulation may have failed, but thankfully, the free-market surrounding water isn’t waiting for regulations to change. The BlueTech sector is already in position with profitable solutions to mitigate climate change.

The inefficient transportation and treatment of water from source to end-user accounts for 13% of energy use in the United States (and 17% in water-starved California).

As we reported earlier this year, the Carbon Footprint of Water Report calculated that a 5% decrease in infrastructure leaks in the United States would save 270 million gallons of water a day and 313 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually — enough to power 31,000 homes. Not only that, but it’d keep 225,000 metric tons of C02 emissions out of the air.

Meanwhile, cities like Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Seattle are introducing plans to replace aging infrastructure, to the tune of nearly $5 billion. Which is only a portion of the estimated $335 billion national pricetag.

It’s a perfectly timed confluence of events: we’re facing a global crisis. The inefficient water complex – which bears some responsibility for the crisis – is due for an upgrade. Simultaneously, innovation in water efficiency has bloomed.

Throughout the country the BlueTech industry is poised to offer municipalities and water authorities cost-savings and reduced costs to upgrade infrastructure via smart-water systems, efficient water-treatment and stormwater management, and positive revenue streams through resources recovered from waste streams.

As water supply ceases to match demand, new desalination technologies can replace ancient systems to achieve excellent energy efficiencies – often with decreased capital expenditures.

Each of these methods mitigates the causes of climate change by making efficient use of water, thereby making efficient use of energy. Efficient energy use reduces fossil fuel extraction (thereby reducing water usage still further) and reduces the release of pollutants like CO2 and mercury into the atmosphere and water supply.

And each of these methods reduces costs for implementers, either by reducing capital expenditures or by reducing operational costs. They’re a win for the economy and a win for the environment.

To be sure, it’d be helpful if Congress would expedite adoption of clean technology by establishing a firm price signal for pollution. But as American politicians have repeatedly refused, the free market is ready to manage the growing climate and water crises, with or without Congress.

 

Written by Laura Shenkar · Categorized: Commentary, Desalinization, Investments, News, Resource Recovery, Smart Water, Stormwater, Wastewater Treatment · Tagged: carbon, climate legislation, congress, ERI, free-markets, market drivers, regulations, smart water

Jul 08 2010

TaKaDu Finds a Partner in Schneider Electric

TaKaDu Partners with SchneiderTaKaDu, who we’ve written about previously here and here, recently announced they’ve partnered with Schneider Electric, a global energy management giant.The partnership exposes TaKaDu to Schneider Electric’s customers in more than 100 countries, where TaKaDu will be deployed to identify inefficiencies in water management in an effort to reduce energy usage.

As Pascal Bonnefoi, water segment director at Schneider Electric, stated in a recent interview, “The Energy Bill represents on average one-third of the operating cost of the water utility. We need to do more with less –  and water is not an exception.” [Read more…]

Written by Laura Shenkar · Categorized: Energy, Featured, News, Smart Water · Tagged: partnerships, schneider electric, smart water, TaKaDu

Jun 12 2010

Guatemalan “sinkhole” not a sinkhole

Guatemala City Sinkhole
A sinkhole caused by leaking water infrastructure swallowed two buildings and killed at least one.

According to a geologist quoted recently by Discovery News, that Giant sinkhole in Guatemala city isn’t a “sinkhole” — it’s a “piping feature”.

Geologist Sam Bonis says, “When you have water flowing from storm water runoff, a sewage pipe, or any kind of strong flow, it eats away at the loose material. We don’t know how long it has to go on before it collapses. But once it starts collapsing, God help us.” [Read more…]

Written by Laura Shenkar · Categorized: Commentary, Developing World, News, On-site Water Treatment, Smart Water · Tagged: guatemala, sinkhole, smart water

Jun 02 2010

It’s Time for the Smart Water Grid

By adding intelligence to water, utilities and corporations can increase efficiency / Photo: hotreactor on flickr
By adding intelligence to water management, utilities and corporations can increase efficiency / Photo: hotreactor on flickr

Though Smart Water offers equal or potentially greater benefits than Smart Energy, Smart Water isn’t getting equal coverage.

It’s been a great year for the Smart Grid. Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, analysts, journalists, and regulators can’t stop talking about it. Experts are competing to project greater market potential. Zpryme puts the Smart Appliance market alone at $15.2bn by 2015, Lux Research talks about $15.8bn, Cisco estimates the overall  opportunity at $100bn and Pike research uses a whopping $200bn figure.

Giants like Cisco and IBM have set aside billions to fund Smart Grid activities. The US government has kept up, allocating hefty tax credits and incentives for Smart Grid development, with $3.4bn from the stimulus bill granted to 100 smart-grid initiatives last October. VCs are investing heavily, as these three lists show. But while we anticipate the first Smart Grid IPO (market-permitting) from Silver Spring Networks, we’ve got to wonder out loud: Why isn’t water being served at this party? [Read more…]

Written by Laura Shenkar · Categorized: Energy, Smart Water, Technology, Trends · Tagged: AUG signals, Cisco, i2o, IBM, Lux Research, Oracle, Siemens, Smart Grid, smart water, TaKaDu

May 19 2010

Smart Water Saves Water, Money and Lives

Presidential Elevator
Credit: Pete Souza / White House

Say you caught an elevator ride with the President — you’ve got 45 seconds to say something. What would it be?

I’d talk about water.

Failing water infrastructure causes more illnesses every year in the United States than H1N1 did worldwide in 2009.

Aging water infrastructure wastes billions of liters of drinking water, every day.

Inefficiency makes water utilities the single most energy-intensive industry: 13% of United States energy use originates from the water complex.

A 5% decrease in leaks in the United States would save 270 million gallons of water a day and 313 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually — enough to power 31,000 homes. Not only that, but it’d keep 225,000 metric tons of C02 emissions out of the air. For just 5% better efficiency. Imagine 20%.

The cost to overhaul the water complex would make the President balk: $335 billion is a tough number to swallow.

But doing nothing is betting human lives on a losing hand.

I’d offer the President a moderate alternative: make water infrastructure smarter.

Install sensors, from companies like AUG Signals, Ltd, an Artemis Top 50 company, to monitor water pressure, quality and demand. Integrate software from Artemis Top 50 companies like Derceto, Optimatics and TaKaDu to model water use in real time, dynamically adjusting water delivery to its highest possible efficiency.

The relatively small investment would pay for itself. Utilities could visualize weaknesses in infrastructure, enabling them to prioritize repairs instead of blindly replacing good pipe along with the bad. They would predict failures and plan intelligently, scheduling infrastructure upgrades and distributing costs over a period of years, thus increasing the affordability of each phase.

Smart water monitoring would continue to benefit new infrastructure: sensors would analyze water quality in real time. Utilities would identify toxins immediately, without the long feedback loops inherent in traditional laboratory testing. They’d be able to preempt bacterial outbreaks, industrial contamination and terrorist attacks — saving lives while reducing costs.

It’s a win-win opportunity: jumpstart a new industry, increase water quality, reduce energy usage and carbon emissions, increase national security and prevent tragedies, all while saving billions of dollars now and tens of billions of dollars in the long run.

He’d have to say yes.

 

Written by Laura Shenkar · Categorized: Energy, Smart Water, Waste · Tagged: energy, smart water, technology, waste

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