Green Options

This post was written by Paul O’Callaghan, founding CEO of the Clean Tech consultancy, O2 Environmental Inc. and lecturer on Sustainable Energy at the BC Institute of Technology.
There was much furore recently surrounding the story ‘Joule Biotech comes out of stealth with sun-powered biofuel’.

The premise is that the technology can take solar energy and use it to convert carbon dioxide directly into fuel. A one stop-shop to soak up carbon dioxide and produce a biofuel.

Having dug into it a little, the conclusion I came to is that it’s not as radical as it sounds. It is basically directed photosynthesis: same principle as oil from algae, or biofuels. The overall efficiencies are likely to be 10 times lower than that from solar PV processes, but, in terms of where biofuels are heading, it is on the right track.

This post was written by Paul O’Callaghan, founding CEO of the Clean Tech consultancy, O2 Environmental Inc. and lecturer on Sustainable Energy at the BC Institute of Technology.

‘Any plan to switch from gasoline to electricity or biofuels is a strategic decision to switch our dependence from foreign oil to domestic water’.

So says Dr. Michael Webber of the University of Texas at Austin in an interview with Steven Lacey on the Inside Renewable Energy Podcast this week.

Webber comments on the links between water and energy, the potential conflicts, but also about the potential opportunities which arise when you start to understand these links and realize that saving water saves energy, and saving energy saves water.

This post is submitted by Paul O’Callaghan founding CEO of O2 Environmental .

‘Growing world population will cause a “perfect storm” of food, energy and water shortages by 2030′. That is what a UK Government chief scientist told attendees at the Sustainable Development conference in London yesterday. Prof. Beddington told the group that demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 and for fresh water by 30%, as the population tops 8.3 billion.

Despite this, investment in water deals represented just 1.8% of the total investment in the Clean Technology area in 2008. There are number of reasons for this and also signs that this is changing.

First there was “Peak Oil’, then there was talk of ‘Peak Water’, but ‘Peak Phosphorus’, may trump them all as a sustainability issue without rival.

Fact: Phosphorus is a non-renewable resource for which there is no substitute.

Our ability to provide enough food to feed the human population is dependent on the use of artificial fertilizers, which contain nitrogen and phosphorus. While nitrogen is abundant in the atmosphere, phosphorus is mined at just a handful of locations worldwide.

There is a growing recognition that there are two convergent crises facing the world: energy and water. Scientific American launched a dedicated environmental publication this month, Earth 3.0, with the cover story Energy Vs Water. The article explores the dichotomy between the fact that we need energy to produce water and we need water to produce energy. As we are reaching Peak Oil, we also appear to be  approaching Peak Water. This creates an interesting dilemma—one which will require no small amount of innovation to solve.

This post is submitted by Paul O’Callaghan, founding CEO of the Clean Tech consultancy, O2 Environmental Inc. and lecturer on Environmental Protection Technology at Kwantlen University.
The prospect of ‘Peak Water’ is stimulating both investment and innovation in the water sector. More and more water technology start-ups are receiving venture capital funding and at the same time, a number of investment groups are offering specific water funds.  So how safe a bet is water?
The magazine Inc.com just ran an excellent article called ‘Blue is the New Green’ where they feature 11 entrepeneurs who are looking to create radical change in this space. In what was one of the largest venture capital investments to date in a water start-up, one of the companies featured in the article, Water Standard, secured $250 million in March 2008 to help fund their plans to convert old tankers into floating desalination factories. They see a growing market for this as they can re-fit old single hulled tankers and mobilise to areas that need water urgently. They can do this in far shorter order than it takes to get through planning, design, build and commission a new land based desalination facility.
Water Funds
For those of us who may not have $250M to invest…, but would like to invest in water solutions, the investment group Calvert just launched the ‘Calvert Global Water Fund’ (CFWAX) on Sept 30th 2008. The Fund invests in utility, infrastructure, and technology companies active in managing water resources. The fund is managed by KBC Assett Management who say that they stay on top of the technological issues involved in the water cycle through its ‘outside environmental advisory committee of scientists’. Jens Peers, lead portfolio manager of the Calvert Global Water Fund says ‘we believe that no other water asset management group has set up a comparable committee of unbiased experts.”