A dialogue has emerged among industry groups, regulatory agencies, investors and R&D communities about the importance of water innovation and innovative water resource management approaches. The tradeoff debates are becoming especially acute, particularly as they relate to energy, food and common goods.

As a result, environmental, economic and social demands for water continue to be in fierce competition, resulting in some sobering statistics. One study has projected that, based on current water use practices, by 2030 3.9 billion individuals will be living under severe water stress. Not a good outlook for communities and certainly not a good outlook for business.

In some cases, adapting to water stress has produced regional leaders in both water technology development and integrated water resource management. While the particular circumstance of water stress can be a key driver, many also recognize that the value of ensuring water security is part and parcel with supporting economic development.

Still, water technology development is a fairly new phenomenon and venture capital (VC) or ‘innovation financing’ has not yet organized itself around this particular sector. Indeed, financing for water technology innovation accounts for a paltry 2% to 3% of total cleantech VC. With the exception of those in the …

It’s only natural that as an analyst, I am consistently asked to whip out my crystal ball and share the future of water technologies. The reality is that I’m more inclined to highlight the challenges that water innovators are confronted with in the context of our global need for better water resource management. Naturally, it would be worthless to consider technologies outside the scope of the solutions that they need to solve. So while there are some days that I hate to answer a specific water technology outlook request, most days I love sharing my answer to this question.

Since a typical aspect of market research has historically been market sizing, many water outlook requests are growth trend questions. In other words, the typical question is: where should I be investing my money in the water sector? Which markets present the greatest opportunity?

For those of you that know about the Black Swan (the theory, not the movie starring Natalie Portman), it suggests that the most innovative companies that have emerged throughout history while complete surprises, were ultimately rationalized in hindsight. I’m not saying that market sizing isn’t important (our CEO would kill me if I said that!), I’m saying …

There has been a lot of discussion around the water-energy nexus concept. Innovators are developing new technologies to improve the energy requirements of treatment technologies while others are developing technologies that harvest the energy and mineral/nutrient content of waste streams. It is an immensely promising area due in no small part to the fact that customers of all camps are typically quite sensitive to their energy costs.

Water utilities in particular are acutely aware that approximately 90% to 95% of their energy related costs are utilized by pumps. While the prioritization of energy efficient pumps in the procurement process can save on such costs, engineering firms play a significant role in helping water utilities optimize pump scheduling of existing assets. Such services are typically based on hourly rates on a per project basis and can be viewed as either potential partnership opportunities or gating barriers for new water market entrants.

Derceto (see Company Insight Report, subscription required), is a New Zealand based company that has a perspective from both worlds. The company spun off from an engineering firm and now sells an ‘off the shelf’ software product that optimizes pump scheduling for water utilities. Their software has helped EBMUD…