Lost in Translation
Please note: Once more, this issue is a Colorado River Basin negotiations free zone, because even though the ‘drop dead’ date is next Tuesday, no progress has been made.
Friends of Confluence West -
There are a number of smart, dedicated entrepreneurs developing new technology for water providers. Not a lot of that emerging tech is getting adopted. Why?
I recently spoke at Stanford Climate Week with a few of these entrepreneurs. I played the role of the skunk in the room, highlighting the challenges of trying to force square pegs into round holes.
Back at HQ, we decided to take a headlong dive into why most water tech entrepreneurs speak Martian and water providers speak Basque.
Our new briefing paper - Lost in Translation: a Water Provider Emerging Technology Evaluation Checklist, outlines some of those reasons:
Overall, most water providers (utilities, munis, NGOs, irrigation districts) face three challenges:
1. They’re selling less product—customers are conserving more, so less income.
2. Fixed costs aren’t going anywhere (and are getting more expensive).
3. The rapid changes in the climate bring uncertainty and risk—how can they be sure that a new piece of tech will help in five or ten years?
Overall, many of these emerging tech companies face three challenges:
1. There’s not much ‘patient’ VC funding. While many point to the rapid growth of the renewables sector, most of the funding from the federal BiPIA and the IRA funding went to renewables rather than water supply.
2. Over 90% of grants from the big climate donors (e.g., Bezos, Bloomberg) have been directed toward mitigation and not water security.
3. The market isn’t fully mature; adopting new technology often requires a leap of faith—will the company still be around in a few years? If the company gets acquired, how can a utility be sure that costs won’t skyrocket?
The briefing paper has the checklist: technical feasibility, regulatory and environmental compliance, financial evaluation, operational considerations, and strategic fit.
Is your water tech company struggling to get water providers to understand how your product can help? Are you a water provider confused by the flood of promotions for new tech that end up in your mailbox?
Confluence West’s translation services are available!
For the West,
Kimery
PS - You can read about a great example of an irrigation district adopting a smart piece of technology in our previous edition of Three Drops.
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