Accelerate H2O partners with Isle to deliver water tech approval meetings in Texas
Accelerate H2O, a Texas-based organisation created to discover, promote and invest in new and existing technologies that have potential to fill demands and needs in the state's $9 billion (€7.9 billion) water technology market, has entered into a partnership with Isle Inc., an independent technology and innovation consultancy specialising in clean technologies. Under the agreement, Accelerate H2O will work with Isle to deliver a series of Technology Approval Group (TAG) meetings in Texas over the course of 2015.
The organisations will work together to bring the most forward thinking water agencies and other organisations in Texas to a series of jointly-hosted TAG meetings throughout the state over the course of the year. Technologies selected by the attendee panel will attend the meetings to present their innovations with a view to seeking market feedback, validation and support for field trials or demonstration opportunities to reduce their time to commercialisation.
'The partnership between Accelerate H2O and Isle will provide a valuable contribution towards the objectives of both organisations,' says Ed Archuleta, chairman of the executive committee and former CEO and president of El Paso Water Utility. 'Bringing the Isle TAG forums to Texas will not only supply Texas water agencies with a stream of new water technologies from around the world for evaluation which address their current and future challenges, it will also provide a direct channel for Texas based water technologies to gain exposure and present their innovative offerings to the other global markets in which the Isle TAG forum operates.'
Isle's mission is to accelerate the market uptake of 'step-change' technologies by introducing them to potentially interested water utilities during the pre-commercial stages of development and by facilitating additional research and trials to demonstrate the feasibility of the technologies. It receives no funding from manufacturers and maintains complete independence from the technologies they introduce to utilities. Existing agreements between Isle, the Water Research Foundation (WateRF) and the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) ensure that promising new technologies can be taken to trial in the field and objective results and conclusions can be drawn through an independent, peer-reviewed process.
'Investment in new technology is desperately needed if the water industry is to tackle the challenges ahead. This partnership between Accelerate H2O and Isle brings together the strengths of two organisations who share a common goal,' explains Bill Kelly, president of Isle Inc.
