Archive for the ‘Water’ Category
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
It is no secret that water from desalination provides the lifeblood for many countries in the Middle East – Saudi Arabia chief among them. About a year ago, the country opened its 28th desalination facility, the Jubail II, which produces 800,000 m3 per day. While desalination provides a solution for the region’s water needs – at least it’s domestic and industrial water needs – only some countries, such as Saudi Arabia with its vast oil reserves, have the energy resources to sustain these facilities. However, even these abundant energy sources are finite – and indeed peaking in terms of production – and will not long provide the cheap power necessary to run desal plants. The situation will only become more acute as more desalination plants are constructed.
The combination of renewable power, particularly solar power in the sundrenched Middle East, and desalination may prove the perfect symbiotic relationship. Solar power’s detractors have noted that its intermittency, demand for large expanses and cost all make it ill-suited for conventional electricity generation. However, desalination plants don’t necessarily require high capacity power, as the product water is easily stored. Furthermore, the Middle East is replete with large empty tracts of high insolation land. The last barrier, cost, is also eroding as PV prices tumble globally; cost is now also one of the major focuses of The Middle East Desalination Research Center (MEDRC).
Even so, concentrated solar power (CSP) – a form of solar energy generation that uses mirrors to focus the sun’s rays and create heat – is emerging as the most alluring renewable power solution for desal in the bright Middle East. Tunisia water utility SONEDE is considering solar power for a series of small brackish water desalination plants in its southern provinces, while Morocco’s bulk water provider Office National de l’Eau Potable (ONEP) has ambitious plans to build a 9,000 m3/d pilot desalination/CSP plant in Tan Tan in the south of the country. As discussed (see April 22, 2010 LRWJ – client registration required) Saudi Arabia is also actively pursuing the use of CSP to power a 30,000 m3/d desalination in conjunction with IBM. In short, new opportunities are arising in sundrenched but water poor regions of the world, even as CSP and renewables in general face new hurdles in developed nations and debt-ridden sovereigns pull back on generous subsidies.
Tags: IBM
Posted in Water |
Friday, June 18th, 2010
It has been over two months since British Petroleum’s (BP) Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded, creating a massive oil spill along the Gulf coast. Earlier, we discussed BP’s use of Corexit, a chemical that breaks down the oil slick for bacterial consumption, or sinks it into the water to prevent it from reaching the shore. In that discussion, we noted Corexit’s potential health risks to humans, as well as marine life and water fowl.
Critics of how the massive oil slick has been handled so far have noted the technologies deployed to counter it are the same technologies used for the last several decades. Though many new technologies offer alternatives, many hurdles remain before a complete solution is found.
Part of the slowdown in adopting new technologies for this spill is that the process for vetting them requires analysis and approval from BP, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as other U.S. agencies. With the U.S. government taking charge it is unclear whether we can expect further “red tape” delays. The one silver lining is that all parties involved are entertaining the flood of new ideas and suggestions coming into the help lines – even those in the early stages of field testing – which could provide a potential market for a myriad of new technologies.
In the last several weeks many new technologies, especially companies with non-chemical water treatment technologies, have tried their hand at solving the problem. For example, Ecosphere Technologies has already gained approval from BP and is awaiting approvals from government agencies to deploy its Ozonix Systems, which uses an advanced oxidation process for water treatment. In an interesting convergence, actor Kevin Costner – star of the post-apocalyptic movie Waterworld – has privately funded the development of a centrifugal device with Ocean Therapy Solutions, which BP has approved for testing on the oil spill. The technology separates oil from water, stores it in tankers and returns purified water back to the gulf. John Houghtaling, chief executive of Ocean Therapy Solutions, claims that the largest of his company’s machines can separate oil from water at a rate of 200 gallons per minute.
Meanwhile, other companies fielding clean-up technologies – like MyCelx, AbTech Industries, and Gradek Energy – have since moved away from treating oil spills because of the approvals barriers. However, the Deepwater Horizon spill is also providing opportunities for software solutions and sensor technologies that help guide clean-up efforts. Software technologies that track the movement oil spills have an easier path into this market because they provide ongoing monitoring capability with lower capital costs, and we expect minimal regulatory hurdles given the nature of the services.
Tags: AbTech Industries, British Petroleum, Ecosphere Technologies, Gradek Energy, MyCelx, Ocean Therapy Solutions
Posted in Carbon, Water |
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
 Sewage sludge from wastewater has long been narrowly viewed as an expensive nuisance, fit only for treatment and disposal. Utilities, however, have increasingly begun to explore technologies designed to help extract energy and other valuable products from wastewater sludge. As these technologies mature, the market opportunity for resource recovery will grow from $25 billion today to $45 billion in 2020, according to a recently released Lux Research report titled “Technologies Turn Waste into Profit.”
To evaluate the technologies competing for a share of the market, the report first separated them into two application segments: energy recovery and nutrient/material recovery. It then scored candidate technologies by their technical merits and maturity.
This week’s Graphic focuses on methods for recovering energy from sludge, mostly in the form of biogas or alternative fuels. The technologies in this category show the most promise, and are on track to capture 64% of the overall market in 2020.
Although recovering energy from sludge is relatively new as a business proposition, the basic technology has long been available in the form of anaerobic digesters. Notably, technologies that help improve production of biogas by enhancing anaerobic digestion offer the strongest value proposition. Hence, many of these technologies – including ultrasonic cavitation, mechanical disintegration and thermal hydrolysis – land in the Current Winners segment.
Deriving alternative fuels from sludge also shows promise, with caveats. Technologies, like gasification, pyrolysis, and supercritical water oxidation help to derive alternative fuels like syngas and biodiesel from sludge. These approaches scored highly on technical value due to their favorable energy balance, relatively low capital costs, and high solids removal. However, they are also equipment-intensive and, with a limited number of installations, they registered low on commercial maturity.
Posted in Water |
Friday, May 21st, 2010
In the wake of the April explosion on the offshore oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, thousands of barrels of crude oil have been gushing to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico each day. Estimates vary, however, on just how large the leak is. British Petroleum (BP), the company that leased the rig, estimates at least 5,000 barrels a day are issuing from the bottom of the Gulf, while independent scientists believe the daily flow could range between 25,000 and 100,000 barrels (1.05 million gallons to 4.2 million gallons).
Tony Hayward, Chief Executive of BP said that it could be weeks or months before the spill is brought under control, and that the company could spend $10 million a day on clean-up efforts. To prevent the oil slick from reaching shore, BP has been using a dispersant called Corexit, a chemical that breaks oil slicks into smaller particles that can are either consumed by bacteria or sink into the water.
Corexit, however, has its detractors. Toxicologist Dr. William Sawyer noted that Corexit, aka deodorized kerosene, presents health risks not only to humans, but also sea turtles, dolphins, birds, and any other species that need to surface for air.
Meanwhile, a more effective and safer dispersant called Dispersit is available, but is not being used despite being approved by the EPA for just this purpose some 10 years ago. While it’s not clear why BP prefers Corexit over Dispersit, there are those that speculate that Corexit makes up most of the dispersant stockpiles in the U.S., partly because the government had used it before. Therefore, because it’s readily available, it’s being used to clean up the oil spill in the Gulf.
This frustrates Connie Mixon, CEO of MyCelx Technologies. When we spoke to Connie last week, she noted that the technology used for spill response is in the Stone Age. She added that MyCelx has tried for years to educate the oil industry about its product. Most recently, it sent its hydrocarbon-absorbing polymer filter to help clean oil spills in the Gulf following Hurricane Katrina. It’s still unclear whether or not it had been used at that time.
Unfortunately, this appears to be a common theme, as many companies we have spoken to start off developing a technology to help clean oil spills only to move on to the more lucrative business of removing oil from process and wastewater. Examples include MyCelx, AbTech Industries, and Gradek Energy.
On an interesting side note: Deepwater Horizon’s response website provides a phone number and application form for anyone who wants to propose alternative response technologies. Who knows? Maybe BP and others will listen.
Tags: AbTech Industries, British Petroleum, Gradek Energy, MyCelx Technologies
Posted in Water |
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
Amidst an uncertain economic climate, top corporate executives, entrepreneurs, investors, and academic luminaries traveled to Boston last month to share the ideas, insights and innovations that helped establish them as today’s business and technology leaders.
The event was the fifth annual Lux Executive Summit, where leading innovators – from IBM to Mitsui to DSM – meet, discuss and learn about the technologies that will drive growth and profits for years to come. This week, Lux Populi highlights some of the insights and observations from the Lux Executive Summit by analysts from each of Lux Research’s Intelligence services.
Biosciences: Pulp/paper producers protest penetration into biofuels
Amidst a lively debate about ethanol’s potential to displace petroleum in the U.S., Samhitha Udupa pointed out to Robert Gelman, a researcher at Ashland, that several of the technology developers that Lux has briefed were struggling with pretreatment processes to breakdown and separate components of lignocellulosic biomass (comprising lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose). Pretreatment is widely recognized as the most expensive step in cellulosic fermentation, and enzyme giants like Novozymes spent many years designing cheaper enzymes. Interestingly, Gelman vehemently asserted that firms, like Ashland, with experience in pulp and paper have long been experts at separating components of wood, an abundant lignocellulosic feedstock.
So why aren’t more pulp and paper players stepping up to take advantage of a huge unmet need in a soon-to-be high-volume industry?
According to Robert, he had the same thought years ago, and pursued the idea with “many” (emphatically) of his higher-ups, but was met with great skepticism. He asserted that pulp and paper producers are “dinosaurs more interested in reliving ‘Blazing Saddles’ than in exploring adjacent applications for their valuable technologies.” While the cellulosic ethanol industry continues reinventing the wheel – or parts of the wheel – in an effort to bring down costs, pulp and paper producers continue to… produce paper and pulp.
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Green Buildings: Dow says many buildings are actually getting less efficient
Mike Kontranowski, Strategic Marketing Manager of Dow Building Solution’ Thermax brand of rigid insulating board, presented a sobering analysis of the direction of building efficiency during the Summit. Although buildings of all types have become more energy efficient on a per square foot basis for the past 50 years, many buildings constructed over the past decade have bucked the trend and have begun regressing on energy efficiency. This reversal comes despite newfound interest in “green building” among governments, occupants, and the building owners themselves, and despite the plethora of insulation, window, equipment, and other devices that yield far greater efficiencies. More surprisingly, many of the buildings are LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certified, because energy efficiency is only one of many metrics that accrue points needed for certification.
The proximate cause of the backslide in efficiency is a switch to less expensive aluminum wall studs in place of wood or block in recent years. Because aluminum is such a good conductor of heat, walls that are otherwise well-insulated – with insulation batts installed between the studs – see an overall insulating R-value of the wall drop in half, from 11 or more to 5. Thermal images of walls are particularly poignant, showing relatively small amounts of heat escaping from between the studs, while the studs themselves were lit up like Christmas trees.
Fortunately solutions exist even for this problem, including new insulating sheathing technologies from Dow and Owens Corning that cover the exterior of the studs. In addition, aerogel companies, such as Aspen Aerogels and American Aerogel, are developing insulating tapes designed specifically to envelop the studs themselves and lend substantial insulating value. Although, adoption of these technologies isn’t likely to surge in the near term, expect renewed regulatory efforts and impending financial programs like the PACE bonds may accelerate their roll-out further on (see the May 3, 2010 LRGJ – client registration required), and may reverse the unfortunate regression in thermal insulation in modern structures.
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Nanomaterials: Best practices for building a business around nanotechnology
During a panel discussion at the Summit, CTO Seth Coe-Sullivan of QD Vision, President Donald Cho of Finetex EnE, and President Adrian Burden of Bilcare Technologies discussed best practices for building a business around nanotechnology. Common tips included:
- Secure funding early
- Protect intellectual property
- Integrate environmental, health, and safety (EHS) plans with business strategy
- Develop a strong team top-to-bottom
- Developing nanointermediates instead of just nanomaterials, and
- Focus on a small number of target markets
While the trio hit most of the best practices that we’ve touted before, one of the most critical steps for a start-up is forming partnerships early with large corporations (see “Open Innovation and Its Discontents: Solving the Emerging Technology Funding Problem”). With these tips in mind, clients should check each box when engaging start-ups and benchmark the potentials against strong players like QD Vision, Bilcare, and Finetex.
With regard to Finetex, its VP Donald Cho told Lux analyst Jurron Bradley that it supplies nanofiber filters to GE for its turbines to filter the incoming air. While gas turbines may not represent a large opportunity for filter companies, the partnership is a strong vote of confidence for the product and pushes Finetex further in front of its competition. Finetex’s revenues from nanofiber sales are still a modest $1.5 million, but it sports an extensive partner and customer list, which speaks well for its future. Clients looking for a nanofiber supplier, especially for textile and filtration applications, should engage Finetex, but those considering running their own production lines should look to Elmarco for equipment.
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Power: Toyota, Compact Power, and BYD offer contrasting views on the future of Li-ion
Three panel speakers in energy storage provided three very different visions for the future of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries and electric vehicles. The panel included Bill Reinert, National Manager for Toyota Motor Sales’ Advanced Technology Group, Prabhakar Patil, CEO of Compact Power (a subsidiary of LG Chem, and battery supplier for the Chevy Volt), and Micheal Austin, VP of BYD America.
Reinert, the most conservative of the three, lamented that at today’s Li-ion battery prices, even a plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) with as little as a 10-mile all-electric range (AER) is still too expensive. While Patil agreed that Li-ion batteries were very expensive today, he felt that costs would drop by a factor of two to four in the next five years to 10 years. Austin, by far the most bullish of the three, claimed that BYD is already producing Li-ion batteries at $500/kWh, as well as the electric vehicles (both all-electric vehicles – EVs – and PHEVs) and grid-storage systems that use them.
Our view aligns most with that of Toyota’s Reinert. Our cost estimates for automotive Li-ion packs to the automaker range between $700/kWh and $900/kWh, which is too expensive for any PHEV to compete with a NiMH-powered standard hybrid without serious subsidies. While we agree with the low end of Patil’s estimates – namely the claim that large-format Li-ion prices will drop by a factor of two over the next decade (see the report ”Unplugging the Hype around Electric Vehicles” - client registration required.) – we don’t ever see them dropping by a factor of four, due to high materials costs. Moreover, while BYD might indeed have a very cheap Li-ion cell in China, it is unclear whether such a cell could satisfy Western safety standards, and it seems like its batteries are still too expensive for a tough Chinese auto market, as BYD’s electric vehicle sales in China have been disappointing so far (see the April 28, 2010 LRPJ – client registration required). While BYD and Nissan (with its Leaf EV) have taken Toyota’s mantle as the environmental visionaries of the large automakers, the hybrid stalwart has a firmer grasp of the relevant battery economics.
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Solar: Summit panelists dish on solar industry outlook
Conference invitees attending the Summit’s solar track caught perspective from the industry’s leading lights at two separate panel discussions. First up was the “Top Dogs” panel, wherein Satcon CEO Steve Rhoads and Enphase Energy Founder Raghu Belur discussed the relative merits of centralized inverters versus panel-level microinverters. In addition, Yingli Solar Managing Director Rob Petrina discussed Yingli’s market entry strategy for the U.S.
Overall, all three were incredibly positive about the prospects for the U.S. market in 2010 and 2011 as it begins to soak up demand from Germany. Further, Rhoads and Petrina stressed that the Chinese market is not to be overlooked, especially given the quick pace at which plants can be installed. For example, Satcon cited a total development, engineering and construction time of only a few months for its 38 MW of projects with GCL in China, compared to the 12 to 36 months more typical of U.S. installations
Later that day, Craig Cornelius, Managing Director at Hudson Clean Energy Partners, moderated a panel of “Solar’s Emerging Leaders.” The panel included Dave Pearce, CEO of CIGS start-up NuvoSun; Kurt Barth, founder of CdTe up-and-comer Abound Solar; and Cynthia Christensen, Director of Marketing for Stirling Energy Systems (SES), a developer of a unique variation on solar thermal. The three discussed some of the challenges of overcoming the “bankability” and “warrantability” concerns for new technologies. They suggested the use of third-party insurers and funding initial installations off the company’s own balance sheet were generally accepted best practices in the market downturn. Indeed, SES noted how it spun off a separate project development subsidiary, funded by the same investors, to allow it to focus on technology developments. Clients should watch Abound and SES carefully for their first installations this year, while NuvoSun’s progress with its partner Dow Chemical will determine that company’s future success.
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Water: Top dogs and rising stars discuss opportunities and challenges in the hydrocosm
Two separate panel discussions at the Summit generated insightful commentary on topics ranging from regulation in the hydrocosm, the need for innovation in the field, new market growth opportunities, and the impact of the current low cost of water.
The first panel provided perspective from “top dogs” representing every part of the membrane water treatment system, beginning with David Moll from Dow Water & Process Solutions (the membrane), Bill Musiak from Norit X-Flow North America (the modules), and Jeff Fulgham from GE Water Process & Technologies (system development and other facets).
The panel discussed markets for residential treatment systems, food and beverage processing, wastewater, and two areas of particular excitement: the produced water market and wastewater reuse, all of which we agree are significant growth areas.
We were glad to see the panel unanimously confirm the importance of the wastewater treatment market, which we recently covered in Technologies Turn Waste into Profit (client registration required). The panel also shared our interest in ultrafiltration membranes and the produced water market. Lux Research discussed membranes in a recent report Filtering Out Growth Prospects in the $1.5 Billion Membrane Market (client registration required), and will discuss specifics of the produced water market in an upcoming Water State of the Market Report (SMR) later this year.
The Summit also brought together “rising stars” in the water market, namely Amir Peleg from TakaDu Ltd, Emily Landsburg from Blackgold Biofuels, G.G. Pique from Energy Recovery Inc. (ERI), and Marc Bracken from Echologics Engineering Inc.
The current low cost of water was of particular focus for panelists who discussed how to grow a business given this fundamental truth in the water market. The low cost of water effectively reduces the drive for innovation and new products, since customers are not motivated to alter current water treatments and use patterns.
G.G. and Amir both noted that there is a need for national water policy to push the agenda of innovation, among other benefits. Marc from Echologics noted that repairing the aging water infrastructure is often a pain point for customers because, irrespective of the cost of water, it must still be transported efficiently. Emily noted that Blackgold Biofuels’ business actually helps water utilities stretch their revenue by providing a cash stream from the waste buildup in the pipe infrastructure. In addition to the cost/revenue discussion, the panelists emphasized the need to collaborate, and for solutions that form a “treatment train” instead of claiming to be silver bullet.
Tags: Abound Solar, American Aerogel, Ashland, Aspen Aerogels, Bilcare Technologies, Blackgold Biofuels, BYD America, Compact Power, Dow, DSM, Echologics Engineering, Elmarco, Energy Recovery Inc. (ERI), Enphase Energy, Finetex EnE, General Electric, IBM, Mitsui, Nissan, Norit X-Flow, NuvoSun, Owens Corning, QD Vision, Satcon, Stirling Energy Systems, TaKaDu, Toyota Motor Co., Yingli Solar
Posted in Alternative Power, Biosciences, Green Buildings, Nanomaterials, Solar, Water |
Friday, April 30th, 2010
As techniques for analyzing drinking water have improved, they’ve revealed a broader range of pollutants – albeit in minute concentrations. Even so, utilities are confronting the challenge of how to address public concern regarding these pollutants, most of which are not currently regulated. As we highlighted in our State of the Market Report on Water (see the Lux Research report: “Emerging Pollutants: Myth and Reality.” Client registration required),” governments and regulatory agencies are spending millions of dollars every year trying to assess if emerging pollutants present a risk to public health – a process that will strain budgets as the list of emerging pollutants grows. The report further points out that regulatory agencies will need to shift from regulating individual pollutants to groups of pollutants. It now appears that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will do just that.
In a press release issued by the agency last month, EPA announced that it is developing a “broad new set of strategies to strengthen public health protection from contaminants in drinking water.” The new strategy will regulate pollutants in groups rather than individually to achieve more cost-effective water protection.
If implemented, the proposed strategy could increase demand for advanced treatment technologies able to remove groups of pollutants that fall under future regulations. It will also provide the much-needed opportunity for utilities to increase dialogue with their consumers, and boost confidence in water quality. Lastly, the heightened transparency and increased efforts to protect public health could help utilities justify an increase in their rates.
We are cautiously optimistic about the new strategy, as changes within the EPA are always slow. Plus, we expect the agency will receive some resistance from those in the scientific community. Pollutants within a group can vary substantially in their impact on health and in the challenge their removal poses to treatment processes. Also, EPA is struggling to enforce the Clean Water Act ever since the Supreme Court enforced the “navigable waters” component of the Act, eliminating waterways located in one state and lakes unconnected to larger water systems from EPA’s reach. At this point we can only wait and see what develops next, so stay tuned.
Posted in Water |
Friday, March 19th, 2010
Earlier in March, GE announced that it will provide the first wastewater treatment system for use in a U.S. coal mine. CONSOL Energy will install the technology later this year at its Buchanan 1 facility in Oakwood, VA – one of the nation’s largest underground coal mines.
GE’s zero liquid discharge (ZLD) system is capable of treating 1,600 gallons of water per minute. Using hollow-fiber ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis, it will remove dispersed and dissolved impurities from the mine’s high-salinity wastewater.
The resulting concentrated brine will then treated through thermal evaporation and crystallization, creating crystallized waste salt and allowing reuse of up to 99% of the treated water within the mine. The system will benefit CONSOL Energy by decreasing the amount of freshwater that it currently sources and transports from external sites.
The treatment of wastewater from coal mines represents a tremendous, and largely untapped market. The high level of total dissolved solids and total suspended solids in the wastewater causes frequent membrane fouling, which drives up operation and maintenance costs. GE entered the market in North America by targeting one of the region’s largest underground coal mines. So, if the company’s ZLD system proves cost effective in the long run, GE will have a strong advantage in the mining wastewater market.
Tags: General Electric
Posted in Water |
Friday, March 12th, 2010
Fresh, potable water is a dwindling resource for many of the world’s most populated areas, and the infrastructures for distributing and using it are increasingly antiquated or inefficient. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that more than six billion gallons per day of water (18% of total water treated) are lost during conveyance by leaking pipes. In some low-income countries, such as Indonesia and Mexico, leakage exceeds 50% of water treated, with the global average as high as 35%.
While improvements to physical infrastructure are slow to implement, comparatively faster and lower cost information technology (IT) tools aim to help manage existing infrastructure more effectively. The raft of technologies in this segment apply techniques such as acoustics, digital robot inspection, ground-penetrating radar, wireless sensor networks, and benchmark-based flow modeling. All help provide data toward the detection and location of leaks in pipelines, or measure and assess pipe conditions.
RedZone Robotics is among the more competitive companies on our Lux Innovation Grid, which ranks players according to how their technology, business execution and market presence compare. RedZone stands out largely for its pipe inspection technology, which deploys robots outfitted with an array of sensors that provide pipe integrity information. There are also several leak detection companies on our grid, among them are key players Pressure Pipe Inspection Company (PPIC) and Pure Technologies. Both get high marks for their business execution as well as their technology, which deploys acoustical sensors that allow the flow of water to push the sensors through the pipe.
Bentley Systems and MWH Soft are two of the better-established software companies on the grid. Both apply risk-based approaches to pipe rehabilitation and pinpointing leaks, and both register high business execution scores due to their profitability and high revenues per employee.
Source: Lux Research report ” Ranking Water Information Technology Companies on the Lux Innovation Grid.”
Tags: 7-Technologies, Bentley Systems, Derceto, Echologics Engineering, Martinek Water Management, Miya, MWH Soft, Omni Meta, Pressure Pipe Inspection Company, Pure Technologies, RedZone Robotics, Syrinix, TaKaDu
Posted in Water |
Friday, February 5th, 2010
Changes in Israel’s water industry are having a drastic effect on the nation’s water bills. At the start of the year, Israel’s national water company, Mekorot, which provides 80% of the nation’s water, increased water rates by 25%. Additionally, rates will increase by another 16% during this summer, and at least another 2% at the start of 2011. Currently, water rates range between $1.5 and $2 per cubic meter.
The additional money will help fund a rapid integration of desalination plants into Israel’s water infrastructure. Currently, Israel sources 80% of its drinking water from Lake Kinneret. However, recent water usage levels have caused the lake to drop 1.5 meters in the past two years, and created a total deficit of 2 billion cubic meters. In a report, Mekorot stated there is a 38% chance that the lake will drop to a level by the end of 2010 that prohibits further pumping.
Mekorot instituted a program in 2008 to drill relief wells, which reduced water sourcing from Lake Kinneret by nearly 50%. The company’s long-term water solution involves installing a series of desalination plants that draw from the Mediterranean Sea. Currently, three plants are fully operational, providing approximately 150 million cubic meters of water per year. A fourth plant in Hadera became operational in December 2009, and is expected to reach its full capacity of approximately 125 million cubic meters per year within a few months. Mekorot is planning on bringing two additional plants online by 2012, bringing the total production to 600 million cubic meters, or 80% of Israel’s residential demand. The Israel Water Authority predicts that the increased water production will end the country’s water shortage within three years.
Once completed, the company will invest an additional 5 billion ILS ($1.36 billion) to install a new east-to-west pipeline. The company will focus on reducing water loss with the new pipeline, but it has not made an estimate on the increase in yield at this time.
Even with such drastic rate increases, Mekorot’s CEO believes that the company will still endure heavy losses, and the company is already facing an $8 billion gap in the project’s funding. This indicates that the Israeli people can expect further increases over the coming years. The Israeli government has attempted to ease the impact on customers by temporarily suspending the national Drought Tax until April 2010. At this time, there are no additional plans for government funding or support of the project.
Posted in Water |
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
Fifteen years ago, if you asked Asit Biswas if he believed there was a global water crisis, he would have answered “Yes.” Now, however, the Stockholm Prize winning water researcher says he believes the water crisis is indeed a myth. Biswas made his statement in a lecture at the 2009 Nobel Conference held at Gustavus Adolphus College last October.
While there are notable books on the subject of global water scarcity, including those authored by fellow speaker Peter Gleick, Asit pointed out that he doesn’t see a world water crisis caused by physical water scarcity, but by water management – or rather, a lack of water management.
Asit believes that there is indeed enough water to go around as long as people manage their water better. In his talk he highlighted the fact that 70% of the world’s water is used for agriculture - therefore, inefficiencies in the food chain are also a major drain on water resources. According to Asit, food waste is extremely high, with the USDA reporting that 27% of food in the U.S. goes to waste, while in India 50% of fruits and vegetables and 33% of all cereal grains never make it to the consumer. Asit noted getting food to the people and minimizing waste is one way to increase food availability without the need for additional water. His idea extends to the domestic side as well, where water leaking from distribution pipes is commonplace around the world.
Water efficiency and management is a cornerstone to many of Lux Research’s water reports, most notably the recent reports published on agriculture and water IT. In the Lux Research report entitled “Malthus Returns: Solving the Unsustainable Agricultural Water Demand Conundrum” (client registration required), we highlight the fact that it’s impossible to recapture an appreciable amount of water evaporating from agricultural regions. The only option left to agriculture is to increase water efficiency through technologies such as drip irrigation provided by Netafim and John Deere Irrigation; smart irrigation systems provided by Hydropoint and PureSense; and practices such as increasing crop yields and reducing the volume of water needed.
Improving water efficiency on the domestic side is addressed in the Lux Research report “Ranking Water Information Technologies on the Lux Innovation Grid” (client registration required). In the report, we highlight the fact that utilities, industries, consumers, and governments need to manage water more efficiently, and a basic solution to the water management problem is obtaining better information about water usage through information technologies provided by companies such as Derceto and Itron to minimize unaccounted-for water, reduce water consumption, minimize water pollution, and reduce energy consumption.
There are no fundamental issues that contribute solely to the water crisis. Water is indeed scarce in certain areas of the world where the population density is high, and it’s true that water efficiency and management are in dire need of improvement, as is the aging infrastructure. Improving water efficiency is an integral component to solving the water crisis, but there is also a need for increased funding of public water supplies as well as more investments in the hydrocosm to continue development of innovative water and energy-efficient treatment technologies. Finally, there’s a need for change in the mindset of how water is used and consumed. Not until all of these criteria are met will we truly see an end to the water crisis.
Tags: Derceto, Hydropoint, Itron, John Deere Irrigation, Netafim, PureSense
Posted in Water |
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