Imagine H2o Announces Winners Of Prize For Energy-Saving Water Start-Ups
SAN FRANCISCO, March 17, 2011 –Imagine H2O launched its global Water-Energy Nexus Prize to attract and accelerate new water businesses with energy-saving innovations. “To our surprise, the winners don’t just save energy, they also make use of the valuable energy stored in water and wastewater,” says Scott Bryan, Director of Operations. The First Place winner, Hydrovolts, uses floating hydro-kinetic turbines to convert the flow of a canal into a distributed energy source. The two runners-up, Blackgold Biofuels and Fogbusters, are unlocking the energy resources found in fat, oil and grease (FOG), which are some of the most energy-intensive waste-streams in the water grid. “Remarkably, these companies are turning cost-centers into profit-centers and unlocking important energy potential to make our water infrastructure more efficient and robust,” says Kate Gasner, Imagine H2O’s Prize Manager.
Attracting more than fifty teams from around the world including the United States, Canada, Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Singapore and Israel, Imagine H2O’s 2010 Water-Energy Nexus Prize challenged entrepreneurs to create businesses that reduce the energy needed to move and treat water and wastewater. “The water-energy nexus is of tremendous technical and social importance because you can't generate energy without water and you can't supply clean water without energy,” says Steve Kloos, Advanced Technology Leader at GE Power & Water, and a judge for this year’s prize.Created to help find sustainable, entrepreneurial solutions to global water problems, the Imagine H2O Prize offers over $100,000 in cash, business and legal support, and access to a network of partners, customers, and financiers to accelerate the process of bringing these ideas to market. Imagine H2O is the leading ecosystem for water entrepreneurship and innovation.One of Imagine H2O’s goals for its 2010 prize is to increase awareness of the connection between water and energy, a relationshipoften underappreciated by the public. The EPA estimates that retrofitting one out of every 100 homes with water-efficient technologies could save 100 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year and preventthe release of 80,000 tons of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere.In some parts of the country, you can save more energy by turning off the tap than by turning off the lights. For example, in California, as much as 19% of the state’s energy use is dedicated to moving, treating, and heating water
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