Having arrived in Toronto on a rainy Saturday afternoon, slightly dazzled by the five hour jetlag, I woke up today to find an even rainier – and colder – day.

It seems to suit the motive of the trip which is the Ontario Global Water Leadership Summit taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday and bringing together some of the leading talent in water technology.

Ontario has a plan to become a major renewable energy hub and it also harbors water technology companies, which makes the region a cutting-edge center of cleantech innovation. In February the government of Ontario entered an R&D partnership with PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, to leverage both region’s resources.

Water is the very essence of the region. The area is blessed with tens of lakes, the most famous being the homonymous lake Ontario. Lake Ontario is fed by Niagara River, home to the world-famous Niagara Falls. And it was there we headed today, in order to get a sense of the grandeur of Niagara and its symbolic and practical place in the region’s water wealth.

It’s impossible not to be humbled by the sheer power of Niagara Falls. Its massive flow of water and electrifying beauty is a vivid reminder of the force of nature. They look like a spectacle carefully orchestrated to strike us with a sense of awe and utter wonder.

Many of the tourists wandering there today under their plastic capes to get protection from the intense spray and the cold drizzle probably were not aware of a massive hydropower project currently being undertaken to increase the generation of electricity.

For the last five years a team of engineers has been working in a tunnel below Niagara Falls, said to be the biggest hard-rock tunnel boring machine, which on Friday finally broke through the other side.

The tunnel is called Big Becky, a 6.5 mile passageway built by the Ontario Power Generation company. The project will provide hydropower to 160,000 homes in the region, generating 1.6bn kWh through the power of 500 cubic meters of water per second that will be diverted from the Niagara River to the Sir Adam Beck generating station. It is estimated that it will be in operation for 100 years from the year 2013, when it will be inaugurated after concrete lining has been laid down and careful testing carried out.

Initiatives like this are part of Ontario’s plan to phase out coal completely from its energy mix. Ontario has been attracting solar technology companies to the region as well and it’s home to the world’s largest solar farm. In fact, my first impression of the region is that the size of Ontario’s ambition for renewable energy matches the size of one its biggest natural icons.

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Until not too long ago, entering the water business with technology solutions for water utilities typically meant long, capital-intensive, integration-heavy, project-driven initiatives. As a result, with the exception of highly specialized tools, you could not build a scalable water technology business without investing dozens or even hundreds of millions en route to scale. Not exactly an investor’s dream.

Times are changing, and we are at the beginning of a new era. There is definitely a sense of inherent scalability baked into the next generation of cleantech startups, and water is not lagging behind. The revolution is changing the way many investments in infrastructure, industry and process are made. A sea-change in the way resources are managed doesn’t have to be project and public-works intensive.

As a result, smaller and more nimble companies are taking the stage. Getting legacy infrastructure to work makes more sense now. Tracking assets and networks to know what’s going on before taking out the heavy machinery is key.

Yet, a business challenge remains.

How can one build a scalable business in a space characterized by gigantic projects, endless sales cycles and huge contracts? The answer has four pillars: Partners, Leverage, Usability and Software. And to make things easy it also comes with a nice acronym. Introducing the Water PLUS.

Let’s examine these four elements one by one, starting from the most obvious.

Software: That’s a gimme. Software is an order of magnitude more scalable than hardware, and in the current incremental, ROI-driven climate, it has more chances to succeed than a “tear everything out of the ground and begin again” approach. Nothing to physically install, no holes to dig, no valves to be added or sensors to be hooked up – just install and start using. Moreover, the IT-heavy world of installations and versions is gone. The enterprise software space has experienced a mini-revolution dubbed SaaS – Software-as-a-Service. In layman’s words – software consumed from someone else’s servers, with nothing to deploy on a local machine.

SaaS adds an extra sense of scalability, since it addresses some of the hardest obstacles to quick, repeatable and scalable deployment: On one hand, getting past the IT department, and on the other, managing versions and upgrades. Reducing friction on the first deployment and then again on each and every update or upgrade to the system is crucial.

In recent years there have been several attempts to take a SaaS approach in water technology. Starting from the most basic SCADA systems, such as Tuppas or Multitrode, all the way down to smart sensors managed via a remote web-based service, as is the case of Derceto. When the idea behind TaKaDu was conceived, it was clear to its founder (and to its investors) that it could be much more scalable if it had zero IT footprint. It would make sales easier – no promises to be made – try the SaaS and see if you’d like to buy – and more importantly, it would make the utilities’ lives easier.

Moving on. Let’s talk about Usability.

Usability and User-Experience are rarely mentioned when talking about water technology. Where there are large pipes and complex networks, operational and monitoring interfaces (and gear) are typically complex, take a long time to get the hang of, and separate the men from the boys. If you can figure out what’s going on and actually manage the water system – be it production, distribution or treatment – you have got to be either a veteran or a very unique individual. User-friendliness is not a common attribute of most water technologies. This is not scalable.

The up-and-coming generation of water solutions is all about user-friendliness. Easy to understand, easy to operate, easy to learn – these are keys to success. The underlying science can still be as complex as it needs to be, but what’s under the hood stays under the hood. Take, for example, i2o Water’s pressure management solution. It still involves smart pressure controllers being deployed into the water network, but the user interface is friendly enough for a newcomer to decipher and operate successfully. Needless to say, in TaKaDu we have been stressing usability from day one, and there’s always room for improvement. Our first customers have been great design partners.

Leverage is a key attribute. Taking advantage (in a good way, of course) of assets, processes and data already existing in the organization you are serving. Water utilities have plenty of ‘leverageable’ assets, primarily deep and rich knowledge. Some of the knowledge and knowhow is held by experienced people, and tapping into this resource is not easy. But best practices are a power-multiplier, and baking the joint experience of hundreds of professionals into an automated decision-support system is a great way to make your solution scalable. It’s the famous network effect.SmartMap is a great example of how Water-specific CAD software implements existing models as a baseline for new designs.

Data is another major lever. Water utilities have plenty of data encapsulated in their network, in the form of geographical information (GIS data), meter logs, burst records and repair history. Being able to leverage this data and making sense of it means reducing the dependence on new sensors, meters or manual processes, and increases the scalability of your business multi-fold. In order to implement Water Infrastructure Monitoring in a scalable way, we took this exact approach.

Last but not least: Partners are essential for scalability. Maintaining a direct sales force is an immense overhead for a technology innovator with global reach. And the utility industry is global. Being able to mobilize large players and get their attention, resources and sales focus, is often as crucial as getting your technology to work – maybe even more. The challenge is obviously finding the right partners (and they don’t come in one-size-fits-all) and then working efficiently with both the C-level execs and the people on the ground, doing the actual door-to-door work. In TaKaDu we are fortunate to have identified several such partners, such as Schneider Electric.

Water PLUS is a mini-framework for building a new class of water technology businesses – smart, efficient and scalable. Implementing these principals guarantees a sustainable business model. But there is no substitute for the secret sauce making successful businesses stand out: Ground-breaking technology and an appetite for innovation.

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AguAgro Fund LP has acquired water technology incubator Kinrot Technology Ventures from Canada’s Stern Partners Inc. in a share-swap deal, reports Globes.

Stern Partners, run by president Ronald Stern, will reportedly get a stake in AquAgro, an Israeli venture capital fund focused on innovative water and agriculture technologies, although terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor regulations governing Israel’s Technological Incubators Program require that AquAgro inject at least $3 million into Kinrot over three years.

Stern Partners ran Kinrot for the last three years following the incubator’s privatization. Under the leadership of CEO Assaf Barnea, Kinrot has invested in a portfolio of 11 cleantech start-ups and entered into strategic partnership agreements with Israel’s Mekorot, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and the Milwaukee 7 Water Council.

B. Gaon Holdings Ltd. controls AquAgro through Gaon Agro Industries Ltd.. Gaon Holdings CEO and Gaon Agro chairman Shai Preminger told Globes, “Gaon Holdings is one of the players that, a decade ago, inscribed on its flag investment in the water and cleantech industries, through Gaon Agro. The acquisition of Kinrot turns AquAgro, which we own, into the leading Israeli investor in the water and cleantech technologies.”

Article appearing courtesy Cleantech Investing in Israel.

photo: peasap

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A UK-based renewable energy company has received a $61 million grant from the Australian government to build the world’s first utility-scale wave power project.

Ocean Power Technologies will begin construction of the 19-megawatt project in the waters off Victoria in 2010. The project will provide enough electricity to power 10,000 homes.

Wave technology uses buoys riding up and down on waves to drive an electrical generator, and then sends the power ashore via underwater cable.

The project is part of a larger $218 million government investment in renewable energy that officials say will help Australia meet its goal of generating 20 percent of its electricity demands with renewable sources by 2020.

The other projects receiving government funds include two geothermal projects and a mini-grid that coordinates wind, solar, biodiesel and storage technologies.

Article appearing courtesy of Yale Environment 360

[photo credit: hippolyte photography]

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Safe drinking water from thin air? That’s the claim of San Luis Obispo, California, based Atmospheric Water Systems (AWS), which offers a product line of air-filtering water systems under the brand Dewpointe. Founded more than a year and a half ago by Co-owner Stephen Krauss, Dewpointe systems takes a different approach to creating safe drinking water. Rather than filtering the water that comes through a pipe, Dewpointe filters the moisture out of the air to create drinking water. There are no water pipes attached to the machine. The rectangular device simply plugs into a wall.

I caught up with Mr. Krauss on the second day of this year’s West Coast Green event held at Fort Mason in San Francisco, California, and found out more about the Dewpointe system.

How does it work? Magic?

No, similar to a dehumidifier, Dewpointe pulls moisture out of the air; but unlike a dehumidifier, the goal of this device is to make that moisture drinkable. A series of filters take out 99.99% of the impurities and create clean drinking water. Impressive as this may sound, it also means that there must be moisture in the air for Dewpointe to operate effectively. Hence, all tropical or even moderate humidity environments in the United States such as coastal states, the south and mid-west work well. In desert environments or low moisture areas such as the south-western US, the Dewpointe will struggle.

How much water does it create and what does it cost?

Depending on the relative humidity, a residential unit will create 3-8 gallons of drinking water per day. There is a hot/cold water model (DH9) and a cold only model (DH9x). Both models retail for $1,599. Commercial units are also available but were not at the show and therefore are not described in this article.

Is there maintenance?

Yes, similar to all other water filtration systems, the water filters need to be changed. Estimated annual filter changes is approximately $100. The filters are made of plastic and can be recycled in the same way you would recycle any other plastic. Units come with a 90-day labor, one-year parts and three-year compressor guarantee from the manufacturer.

How does it taste?

Anyone who has ever tasted “plasticy” bottled water or chlorinated tap water will know that taste is the real test of any filtration system. Dewpointe claims that its water is more pure than anything you’ll get out of your tap and will be much better than what you are accustomed to tasting from bottled water. Mr Krauss states that this is because the EPA allows 20 parts per million (PPM) of total dissolved solids in tap water whereas bottled water can have anywhere from 400-800 PPM. Dewpointe has 3 PPM. My completely unscientific and statistically meaningless test of drinking a cup of Dewpointe water confirms that it does taste clean, clear and overall excellent.

How much energy does it use?

This is the downside of using an electric device to create clean drinking water. The hot and cold model uses around 10 kilowatt (kW) hours of power to create 3-8 gallons per day at a cost between $0.40 – $3.00/day. This is because the cost of electricity varies across the US with some areas paying only $0.04 per kW hour and other areas paying as high as $0.30 per kW hour. The higher your humidity, the more you will produce and the lower your per gallon cost. Worst case scenario is that the cost of a gallon of purified water is the minimum amount of water produced (3 gallons) and the highest cost of electricity ($0.30 * 10 kW hours = $3.00) meaning that a gallon costs $3.00/3 gallons = $1.00 per gallon. This is comparable to what you would pay at the store but means you do not have to waste a plastic bottle or make a trip to the store. The best case scenario for a Dewpointe system is that you produce 8 gallons of water at a cost of $0.40 or $.05 per gallon. As you can see, where you fall on the humidity/electric rate spectrum makes a big difference but even the worst case scenario is comparable to the price for a gallon in the store. Mr. Krauss states that the average cost one should expect to pay is somewhere between the extremes or around $0.50-$0.60 per gallon. Note that both models shut off when the water storage tank is full.

Off grid considerations

Since the Dewpointe system runs on electricity, anyone who wants drinking water off the grid could simply couple this unit with solar panels to create drinking water in remote locations. This is ideal for emergency relief areas, military applications, park ranger stations and a plethora of other situations.

Manufacturing source:

The compressors are built in the United States, the filters come from Japan and the body of the units is made in China. Mr. Krauss stated that he spent a long time determining the best place to manufacture the units and through his research realized that an entirely US built system would need to retail for closer to $4,000.

Cool to the last drop

Depending on where you live, the quality of your water and the price you pay for electricity, Dewpointe may offer a clean, cost effective, great tasting, and more sustainable way for you to enjoy drinking water. Magic? No. Innovative thinking? Yes.

To see the device in action and find out more about why it was developed, watch the video below:

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Water agencies facing droughts and shortages of freshwater, such as in coastal California, have been turning increasingly to desalination this year.

However, current desalination methods can be expensive and energy inefficient. Watchdog groups prefer water conservation and efficiency efforts, and charge that tapping the oceans for potable water can pollute waterways and kill marine creatures.

Yet could desalination become more viable and efficient? The Global Cleantech 100 list anointed several companies with that aspiration as technology innovators earlier this month.

Among the varied approaches, NanoH2O of Los Angeles is working on a nanotech membrane to produce fresh water via reverse osmosis, a common water purification method. The company says its technology can cut costs in part by reducing bacterial buildup, fitting within existing desalination systems. NanoH2O projects that its methods could increase a plant’s water output by up to 70 percent while shrinking energy costs by 20 percent.

Danfoss AquaZ of Denmark says it can filter water with a membrane up to 10 times as efficient as with standard desalination technologies. Key to its process are aquaporins, proteins that function like a plumbing system for living cells and that require minimal energy. Danfoss AquaZ plans to integrate aquaporins within artificial nano membranes, filtering out only pure H2O. Aquaporins were discovered relatively recently, leading in part to the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Taking yet a different tack, Oasys Water of Cambridge, Mass., is exploring what it calls engineered osmosis. As Jonathan Fahey of Forbes explains:

Instead of dividing salt water and fresh water, Oasys divides salt water and saltier water. This saltier water is water mixed with a unique type of salt called thermolytic salt… This extremely salty solution draws fresh water from the industrial wastewater or seawater through the membrane, leaving brine behind. Then a small amount of heat is applied to the thermolytic mixture, boiling away the ammonia and carbon dioxide and leaving fresh water…

And Oasys claims its process only requires modest electricity and heat, so it would cost one-tenth of what’s required by reverse osmosis methods for producing drinking water.

Water shortages are expected to increase in the coming decades, becoming a greater burden to businesses and taking an ever higher human toll. More than 1 billion people currently lack access to clean drinking water, according to the World Health Organization. By most accounts, businesses are just beginning to address water woes.

If any of these startups have their way, could desalination become more attractive and less expensive on a grand scale? Which approaches look the most or least promising?

[photo credit: photos8, cipher]

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Water technology, solar innovation, Israel’s electric cars: I’d originally written this story for ISRAEL21c a few months ago when we were planning on launching its new Environment channel. The new channel was finally up this week. Consider it a good starting point if you’d like to know more about Israeli technology and investment opportunities and what the future may hold:

When green evangelist Al Gore visited Israel last year (and Green Prophet was there) he gave a clear message. “The people of Israel can lead the way to renewable energy,” he told audiences. With its unique geographical position, and clean tech know how, he announced, Israel is a natural leader in the field.

It’s a view that is echoed by many. Ian Thomson, the Californian co-founder of CleanTechies, a web site launched for clean technology professionals, agrees.

“Israel has a natural incentive towards clean tech because of its political and natural geography,” he tells ISRAEL21c. The innovations that “make natural sense in Israel, are often good for the rest of the world.”

“Israeli innovators have proven themselves in high -tech, communications, Internet, biotech, medical devices and more,” says Mike Granoff, a general partner at Israel Cleantech Ventures, and the head of oil independence policies at electric car company Better Place.

“The same drive, talent and creativity will serve them well in the next great business frontier, technologies around sustainability,” he says.

The field of clean technology emerged about 10 years ago. It’s a natural space for Israelis, who for more than 60 years have been looking for ways to grow crops on barren wasteland, to re-use scarce water resources creatively, and to lower their reliance on oil from enemy states.

Israeli entrepreneurs were quick to move in, creating new start ups in solar power, bio fuels and clean water, using experience they had already gained over the years.

Investors from around the globe flocked to Israel, and today the country has a number of world leading companies in a range of fields – from geothermal energy provider Ormat, to drip irrigation leader Netafim, solar energy company Brightsource, electric car company Better Place, and Shari Arison’s new Miya consortium for water.

Piping hot water technologies

One of Israel’s largest areas of expertise is in the field of water – particularly drip irrigation, water reuse, recycling, reclamation technology, water security and monitoring.

Today there are about 250 companies working in the water sector in Israel, of which 50 are designated as start ups. In 2008, Israeli water tech exports totalled $1.4 billion, an amount that has doubled since 2005.

The United Nations, which rarely bestows praise on Israel, named it the world’s most efficient recycled water user in a United Nations report issued on March 22, World Water Day.

Ronit Golovaty, an executive from the Department of Water and Environment Technologies inside Israel’s Export and International Cooperation Institute, knows Israel’s water technology market intimately.

Foreign governments and investors frequently approach Israel looking for help with new water technologies to combat shortages and water security, and it’s her job to help. While she’s happy to recommend best-fit technologies, she is not just pushing sales in Israeli companies, but is charged to be a solutions provider. Without regulations in place, it’s hard for countries to adopt new water technologies, she says, suggesting that local or national government be part of any talks, if people are interested in Israeli water technology.

The Oxford graduate boasts that Israel is well equipped to tackle a number of water problems, from water recycling, to wastewater use, irrigation and desalination.

Reducing water consumption in the US

She firmly believes that drip irrigation is something that the US could find extremely beneficial. Today in the US, farmers get their water at highly subsidized rates, or even for free, and therefore have no incentive to reduce consumption.

Water is equated with energy, and if regulation was in place to cut water costs, Israel’s Netafim or Plastro – another Israeli leader in the field – could offer America huge cost savings felt immediately, says Golovaty, pointing to a couple of simple Israeli government-regulated models that resulted in major water savings.

“For domestic use in Israel, every home-owner has to install a double-flush toilet, and every consumer has to have a meter on their apartment,” she says. Having a measure of water use is important for people to understand how to start saving it, she adds.

“In Israel we re-use 75% of our wastewater. This is the largest percentage in the world. And it meets about 50% of our irrigation needs,” she explains.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government has set up two new projects to commercialize Israeli clean technologies: Israel NEWTech, a unit focused on water and energy and headed by Ofer Distel, and a sister project focused on Israeli alternative energy, run by Sigal Admony-Ravid.

For starters, according to Israel NEWTech, the Ashkelon SWRO (seawater reverse osmosis) desalination plant is the largest and most effective kind in the world.

It’s true, Israel does have some exceptional clean technology innovators, agrees David Miron-Wapner, the son of the reality show icon Judge Wapner from the People’s Court.

Manning the US desk at the Israel Center for Industrial Research and Development, Miron-Wapner works directly with Israel’s Chief Scientist Eli Oper to carry out international business and R&D activities between Israel and the US.

From drip irrigation to biofuel

One company in the field of water that he believes is tremendously successful is drip irrigation company Netafim – which saw revenues of $600 million in 2008, an annual growth rate of about 25 percent.

Netafim, which employs 2,400 people in 110 countries around the world, is undoubtedly one of the oldest and biggest names in this sector. Founded in 1965, the company has been operating and supplying solutions to customers in the US, Europe, South America, Africa and Asia for decades.

Netafim’s success stems from the low-tech drip irrigation solution that it pioneered in agriculture. It is now, however, moving rapidly into the field of bio fuel production. The company recently announced bio fuel projects in Peru, demonstrating that traditional businesses from Israel can be brought up to speed for modern needs.

“Peru benefits from several advantages: moderate climate, suitable soil and adequate water resources, which will enable it to play a leading role in the future in the bio-energy market,” explains Ofer Bloch, the CEO of Netafim at the time of writing this article.

“Netafim is the only company that can offer vast agronomical knowledge and smart water solutions for growing sugar cane for the production of ethanol,” he tells ISRAEL21c. “Developing alternative energy sources – such as ethanol – will reduce the dependency of the world on fossil fuel.”

Other successful companies in the water field, according to Miron-Wapner, include WhiteWater, which he says is “successfully blending Israeli expertise that will reach the market”; water technologies incubator Kinrot; Aqwise, a sewage treatment solution; and water consortium Miya, which has input from water expert Booky Oren.

“Oren is doing a tremendous job to promote Israel’s water sector, to pursue a real, large-scale water enterprise,” says Miron-Wapner.

Making sense of the sun

Aside from water, Miron-Wapner also believes that Israel is a leader in the field of solar energy. Aside from BrightSource Energy (formerly Luz), which has signed deals to build solar energy farms in California and Nevada, other Israeli solar energy leaders include Solel, ZenithSolar and AORA (formerly EDIG).

“It looks like BrightSource is moving forward very well in terms of its testing field in Dimona, and it’s ready to fulfil its contract in California,” Miron-Wapner tells ISRAEL21c. Everything points to Solel doing well also, he says. “Both look like they will be successful as more solar projects come on line,” he adds.

DiSP, based on the technology of Prof. Abraham Kribus from Tel Aviv University, has promise for industrial rooftops, says Miron-Wapner, and he sees David Faiman’s technology, from Ben Gurion University, now being commercialized by ZenithSolar “as potentially among the best and most efficient. The question is whether or not it can be brought to a commercial scale.”

When it comes to solar energy solutions in the real world, being the most innovative isn’t always key. The Israeli companies Ormat (ORO), Solel, and BrightSource have demonstrated this says Miron-Wapner. “So many other factors come into play among which are regulatory and finance issues,” he says.

Jack Levy, a general partner at Israel Cleantech Ventures already holds some of Israel’s most unique clean technology companies in his portfolio. Given Israel’s phenomenal success in the information technologies business, he predicts that over time more Israeli companies will start transferring their high-tech smarts to the field of clean-tech.

His firm, the first VC to focus on Israeli clean technology companies, has currently invested in Aqwise, Better Place, and the energy savings company Metrolight, to name a few. “We’re looking for breakthrough technologies. For rapid growth,” says Levy, explaining that clean technology is not an industry, but a sector and a brand.

“It’s a brand from an investor’s perspective and can incorporate drivers of rapid growth across multiple industries. What’s driving the alternative energy market to grow is not dissimilar as to what’s causing water to grow,” he tells ISRAEL21c, connecting the dots between water and energy, two of Israel’s strengths.

Israel clean technology is here to stay

If Israel excels in water and alternative energies, Better Place also has to take a prize. It’s probably one of Israel’s best known environmental companies – certainly the hottest in the international press.

Founded in October 2007 by Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, who has become a global celebrity in the process, the company is developing the infrastructure necessary to make electric cars a feasible reality.

Israel was the first country to sign up with Better Place, and the first blahs are already going up in Haifa. Since then, Denmark, the bay area of San Francisco, Canada, Australia and Hawaii have also signed up for the scheme.

What is notable here is that despite the current world economic crisis, when companies are crashing like bowling pins, Better Place and virtually all of Israel’s other clean-tech companies are not only surviving, but thriving.

Israeli clean-tech companies may not be hiring right now, but they aren’t firing either, showing greater resilience to the recession. A recent survey by online job placement company JobInfo, found that employees in clean tech are suffering less from pay cuts and lay offs than their high-tech counterparts.

Experts predict that clean-tech could well become the country’s biggest export market.

“Even in the midst of the [financial] crisis, Better Place Denmark was able to launch, raising more than $100 million,” admits Granoff. “Even with the price of oil, there is going to be a lot of volatility with anything associated with energy, and not for a short period of time. This volatility creates new opportunities.”

Levy agrees. With or without a recession in Israel, the US, or the rest of the world, rapid urbanization and a supply-demand imbalance are going to keep the clean-tech industry growing.

“Lights are always going to get turned on, water is going to get drunk,” says Levy. Expert in picking solutions that will impact energy and water needs for today and tomorrow, Levy concludes, “I can’t imagine a different sector to be playing in right now.”

This story originally appeared on ISRAEL21c, via Green Prophet.

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For thousands of years, the native Aymara people have been harvesting scarcely fallen raindrops along the Andean foothills in northern Chile by capturing the rainwater in nets for irrigation and drinking purposes. The people in this region, in and around the Atacama desert, are accustomed to fragile ecosystems and an extremely dry climate. However, today, even in the fertile central and southern regions of Chile, there are noticeable tensions over water rights and water availability.

Presently, it is not as if there are times when nothing flows out of the tap here. Nor are the urban folks of Santiago running outside their homes with their own polypropylene mesh nets ready to catch any drop of rain that falls. However, a convergence of factors – an increase in population growth, perceptible changes in climate patterns, and competition for water resources between various industries and hydro power – have caused a national “war over water” of sorts to emerge at the forefront of national environmental, economic, and political discussions.

Climate Change Impacts

Recent studies by Chilean scientists convey climate change could create huge challenges for the country’s expected water availability. The models show projected temperature increases of 1C to 1.5C and a drop in rainfall of at least 10 to 15% in the next 40 years. In addition, the 4^th IPCC Assessment, from 2007, documents:

1. dramatic reductions that have already occurred in the volumes of Chile’s glaciers over recent years,
2. an increase in the presence of hanta virus after prolonged droughts, and
3. more erratic weather activities associated with the El Niño and La Niña cyclical phenomena.

Projections from this assessment also reveal restrictions in the country’s hydro availability in the central zone in the coming years, as well as increased salinity and desertification in Chile’s northern zones

These changes would have a particularly strong impact on Chile’s internationally beloved breadbasket, its prominent agriculture and wine production from the fertile central region. While Chile is not as dependent on Andean glacial run-off for its fresh water supply as neighboring Peru and Bolivia, the natural water supplies from melting snow on the Andes are essential for Chile’s agricultural sector, forestry sector, fruits, and the vines that produce the exquisite wine.

Currently, changing climate patterns, manifested in more frequent and prolonged droughts in the central region, have had the greatest impact in diminished reserves for hydroelectric supplies. Such hydroelectricity has, historically, been Chile’s predominant energy source and, presently accounts for around 40% of Chile’s total installed electricity capacity.

The central region is also home to approximately two-thirds of the country’s 16.6 million inhabitants. Therefore, the reduction in water supplies is concern for potable water treatment and purification companies. One study, headed by Sebastián Vicuña of the Catholic University of Chile’s “Center for Global Change,” discovered that, with a 10-15% reduction in rain levels, the water of the Maipo River – by far the greatest source of drinking water and irrigation for Santiago and the region – would be diminished by 70% by 2065, from 170 cubic meters a second to not more than 60.

Opportunities for Clean Tech Water Technology Transfer

Although Chile has had a unique (and, sometimes successful) free market in the buying and trading of water rights since the framework was first implemented in 1981, even ardent supporters of this unfettered water market see its current and future limitations of oncoming climate challenges and growing industrial needs. The Director General of Water with Chile’s Ministry of Public Works (MOP), Rodrigo Weisner, has stated that even though there is a high level of justice in resolving water disputes in Chile, there are also inadequacies with the system of environmental impact assessments (EIAs), for example. Weisner also points out that current legal mechanisms do not allow for a middle ground between winners in losers in such disputes. Many would argue that, simply, those interests with the deepest pockets are usually the winners of such disputed water supplies.

Even still, beyond economics, what would most likely help resolve water dilemmas in Chile, and in a growing number of water-pressed countries around the globe, are infrastructure improvements from new “clean” water technologies.

In early July 2009, Chile’s state MOP declared that it is presently analyzing ways to promote seawater desalination investment projects in the country’s five northern regions. Large enterprises that have reportedly shown serious interest in desalination activities in Chile have reportedly been BHP Billiton, Spain’s Agbar and even General Electric. With 4,000 km of coastline, it would seem there is no shortage of business opportunities in Chile for emerging desalination technologies, either developed locally or abroad. In addition, The MOP has also investigated the use of “tertiary wastewater treatment” for increasing efficiency in local water utilities. And, in June, the Chilean government established a separate inter-ministry committee for water policies and investments alone.

As Tina Ngo wrote in a previous blog entry on CleanTechies, the water crisis may not receive as much press coverage as the current energy crisis, but, quite soon, there will most likely be just as many “cleantech” opportunities for water treatment and conservation technologies as in producing and harnessing new forms of energy. For an example of innovative approaches to resolving water issues look at the prize competitions of California-based ImagineH2O.

Chile is an example of emerging water debates soon to play out around the globe. So, if we want to continue indulging in the fruits of Chilean wines, as well as potentially our own drinking water, we look forward to increased capital investment and interest in novel, cost-effective water treatment technologies.

[photo credit: malia_mi, LanceCheungImages, steeveleenow]

Related posts:

• Chile Launches Initiative to Measure Water Footprint of Companies
• Why Should Jews Have Their Own Response to the Energy Challenge?
• Chile: the Windy El Dorado, EWEC, Part IV
• Chile fighting climate change — role model for the (developing) world
• Top Ten Highlights of Cleantech Chile

The Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute reports that water technology exports totaled $1.4 billion in 2008 – double the 2005 amount. The global water market is worth $400 billion annually and is expected to rise to $537 billion next year.

To mark World Water Day, the Export Institute published figures about the country’s water technologies industry. There are 250 companies in the sector of which 200 export their products. 50 companies in the sector are defined as start-ups.

These clean technology companies are involved in sectors including water management systems, safety and security for water sources, irrigation management systems, desalination, water recycling and purification.

Israel is ranked first in the world in recycling water for agriculture: 75% of sewage is recycled for agriculture.

This article originally appeared on Cleantech Investing in Isreal.

[Photo Credits: Ron Almog]

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