Climate-KIC start-ups Elemental Water Makers, Solease, Mobile Canal Control and Eternal Sun will be pitching their water- and solar-based businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area this spring.
California is currently experiencing one of its worst droughts in modern history, which is boosting opportunities for solar and water start-ups in the clean-tech sector.
The Netherlands-based start-ups will join five other entrepreneurs on a clean-tech trade mission to the United States organised by the Dutch ministry of foreign affairs.
“When we started preparations for this mission, we knew we could count on Climate-KIC,” said John van den Heuvel, Science & Technology Advisor at the Dutch consulate in San Francisco, “They’re not afraid to put promising companies into the spotlight in this extremely competitive environment.”
Climate-KIC provides the entrepreneurs with business support during the trip and funds the participation of the start-ups.
Van den Heuvel stresses that world-class universities, companies and investors – energised by entrepreneurial savvy and ground-breaking policies – make California and in particular Silicon Valley “the epicentre of clean-tech innovation.”
Californian drought
Start-up Elemental Water Makers contributes to fresh water supply through desalination – driven by renewable, clean energy.
“We have a lot of interest in California, Hawaii and the Virgin Islands. Elemental Water Makers solves fresh water scarcity, using only the sea, sun, earth and wind,” says commercial director Sid Vollebregt.
Mobile Canal Control CEO Peter-Jules van Overloop believes their product has enormous potential in California, which is currently going through the worst drought in 156 years.
“We can promise 10% water savings for the important agricultural sector there,” says Van Overloop, whose company provides a big data platform that enables monitoring and control of water levels and flows with the help of a smartphone.
The U.S. has the second largest desalination market in the world, just after Saudi Arabia. Nearly four-fifths of the U.S. desalination market is concentrated in California, Florida and Texas.
This makes California an interesting place for Elemental Water Makers, with high water tariffs of 3.14 $/m³ and its proximity to Hawaii, where electricity prices have reached over 0.37 $/kWh.
“These numbers stand for market opportunities for our innovation,” says Vollebregt. “It’s a no-brainer that global topics such as energy and water fit a clean-tech forum. The energy intensive industry of desalination is responsible for 0.4% of the global electricity consumption, while accounting for 0.6% of the global water supply.”
Solar power
The home solar-lease model Solease is currently rolling out in the Netherlands – and in due time also across Europe and the world, the founders emphasise – originates in California.
Solar leasing is still in its early stages in Europe, enabling the start-up to win the Dutch edition of the 2012 Climate-KIC Venture Competition with an adapted model for the European market.
Solease is the only company in the Netherlands and one of the first in Europe who offer a solar leasing solution to Europe’s 250 million households.
Solease CEO Pierre Vermeulen points out that in the U.S., solar leasing companies like Solarcity, Sungevity and Sunrun have together already been able to attract $6.5 billion in structured finance. Last year, Solarcity was successfully floated on the stock market. “We are in the process of repeating that same thing – but then in Europe,” he said.
Climate-KIC start-up Eternal Sun, which develops solar simulation systems, will also be joining the mission. The company will follow up on contacts made during Climate-KIC’s 2013 Silicon Valley start-up tour, where it won a Global Ideas Award at the Cleantech Open global forum in San Jose.
Cleantech Forum
As part of the mission, the start-ups will be participating in the Cleantech Forum San Francisco 2014, an annual gathering of the global clean-tech innovation community. The forum includes organised visits to local companies and extensive networking opportunities.
“The theme of the CleanTech Forum is ‘accelerating system change towards a decentralised future,’ says Elemental Water Makers’ Vollebregt, “As a Climate-KIC start-up in the last phase of the Climate-KIC Acceleration Programme, offering a sustainable solution suitable for decentralised water supply, this mission offers a unique opportunity.”
The clean-tech mission will visit San Francisco from 11 to 14 March 2014.