WavePure
“Allowing water-scarce coastal countries and businesses an opportunity to achieve greater water accessibility”.
Problem Domain
The current global water crisis demands an innovative and sustainable solution that can quench the thirst of more than 30% of the world’s population who do not have access to safe drinking water. Many of these areas have access to saltwater, but fresh- and potable water access is extremely limited. Desalination plants already exist in some of these areas, but the quantity of water produced, energy that it takes to produce them, and surface area required for construction often rule out this possibility in developing countries.
Customer Benefits
While our direct customers are infeasible to reach given the scope of this class, we conducted a variety of interviews with professionals that were able to give us a better understanding of the need space. Sources from the Doerr School of Sustainability hypothesized that a wave-powered desalination device would enable coastal areas to unlock a self-sufficient method of water renewal, while reducing the need for heavy use of traditional nonrenewable energy sources. For our first target market of governments in MENA countries, our customer (the government) would benefit by being able to provide clean water for residents without having to pay for expensive traditional utilities to power that function. For our second target market of resorts, these businesses would be able to save on traditional utilities by harnessing energy from wave power using readily available resources to the resort.
Customer Case Study
Dubai is experiencing water scarcity, despite being situated directly on the Persian Gulf. The government of the UAE has already implemented traditional desalination plants, but as a result have observed higher utility costs, large surface area required, and high rates of use of non-environmentally friendly energy sources (gas, coal, etc). They turn to WavePower Technologies’ new product, WavePure, to try out wave-powered desalination using the natural wave power they already have as a coastal city. With WavePure, costs of utilities and maintenance are significantly lower than traditional desalination plants. The construction of a wave-powered desalination device cluster is able to generate 100,000 gallons of water a day, allowing the residents of Dubai to enjoy cleaner water purified in a greener way.
Areas of Uncertainty and Exploration Plans
Top three areas of uncertainty, ranked by value of reducing uncertainty:
- Is the wave energy powered desalination plant actually technology feasible?
- How expensive is it to set up a plant? What are the geographical boundations? Is the technology still in the prototyping phase or is it production ready? All these questions will significantly determine when and how we can enter the market.
- Will individuals from MENA (Middle East and North African) countries be willing to pay a premium to transition to wave powered potable water?
- This would help us determine our profitability and give us insight into how to market the product in MENA countries. This is especially important since MENA countries will be our first set of “affluent” customers who can help us expand and grow as a business.
- To what extent will philanthropic organizations be willing to spend on setting up wave powered desalination plants?
- Tie-ups with NGOs and/or funding from philanthropic organizations can significantly enhance our brand image, establish outreach programs and also fulfill the corporal social responsibility criterias of the company as a whole.
Current plan to explore those areas of uncertainty:
- Since the industry is still quite nascent, the plan is to reach out to research scientists and engineers working in the domain of sustainability and allied fields such as water conservation. We will start off by talking to domain experts in the Doerr School of Sustainability as well as people working in the Desalination domain.
- The plan is to talk to people in MENA countries about how much premium they are willing to pay for potable water made using our wave powered desalination plants. Further, we also plan to survey about the various ways people use water as well as what are their requirements for hygiene and cleanliness of water for each use. This will help us obtain a better product market fit.
- The plan is to do call interviews and survey people in philanthropic organizations and NGOs and get their opinions on setting up desalination plants in water scarce regions. If we do not find philanthropic organizations willing to collaborate and fund our technology then we may consider abandoning the “social service” aspect of our business at least for the initial few stages.
Prior Research
The domain in itself is quite new with no major player in the industry. Further this seems to be a novel solution that hits two birds with one stone: address climate change + make clean potable water accessible. Further, the desalination plants, especially at small to medium scale, are very easy to set up in coastal areas. However, initially we faced issues with identifying the right customer base for this technology. We initially hypothesized that countries, governments and international relief organizations will form a strong customer base for us. While the idea has some merit to it, after talking to product managers that have worked in the B2B industry, we realized that government deals often take a long time and this can derail our product development and business cycle. To remedy this we research industries and businesses that can make the most of our technology and come to the conclusion that the hospitality industry can provide us with a good market consumer fit. We validated this by talking to people who have worked in some capacity or know friends/family members associated with vacation resorts.
While there do exist industry players and global competitors in the clean water industry space, very rarely are they carbon neutral and none of the players have married the idea of accessibility (to potable water) to sustainability (green and clean). Having researched the competition to quite some extent, we feel we can be the first movers in this domain and capitalize on this unique value proposition.
We also corresponded with Nehal Gajjar who is the CEO of iMetalX, a tech startup working in the space and aerospace subsystems domain. She directed us to the Blue Economy and Marine Hydrokinetic initiatives by the Department of Energy which also seem to indicate the government’s interest in clean and green sustainable technology.
Leading Metrics
We have outlined a number of benchmarks for success to measure the impact of WavePure. These include:
- Reach 60% of target MENA countries. Currently, we have outlined 10+ initial countries of interest in the Middle East and North African regions, and our starting metric for “reaching” these countries is being able to engage, share demos, commence regulatory meetings, and begin negotiations and planning with 60% of these countries.
- This same metric applies for our targets in the hospitality industry. We aim to reach 60% of our target regions for waterside resorts in order to initiate engagement.
- Achieve a 100% safety scoring from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.
- Establish meaningful partnerships with at least 10 philanthropic and humanitarian aid organizations, including UNICEF.
Other Options Considered
When refining our product idea for WavePure, there were a number of alternative options that were on the table, each with their own benefits.
- A hybrid wave and wind energy power source was a top contender for our company, providing us the opportunity to tap into a major section of the renewable energy market. We brainstormed initial partnerships and the technical specifications of potential prototypes, but ultimately decided on WavePure, as it gave us a more concrete goal and aligned very closely with our company values.
- A B2C product was also a consideration, where wave energy conversion technology could be utilized in households across the country to purify water. This product would allow our B2B technology to break into the B2C space and transform and expand the direction of our company. However, it would have been a major undertaking and was not technologically or economically feasible.
Why Now?
The cost of delaying the deployment of this technology increases every day. The UN predicts that the global water crisis will continue to worsen as climate change does, and that more than 2.3 billion people currently do not have access to clean water. This particular product addresses this urgent need more than the alternative options. Additionally, there are currently several other potential competitors that employ wave energy conversion technology to marine desalination, and with each passing month, their technological developments increase.
Technologies Involved
WavePure technology will utilize the leading strategy for marine desalination: reverse osmosis. Our current WavePower Energies converters will power Energy Recovery Devices (ERDs) that are used to fuel reverse osmosis membranes for seawater desalination. In our product development process, we will require the help of water engineers, chemists, and structural engineers to refine WavePure technology.
Rough Time Frame
We expect that the research and development of WavePure technology can conclude in the next 3 years, given the current success of our wave energy conversion technology. Here is a detailed timeline using the 1-3 method:
- 1-3 weeks: Initiate lab work for our reverse osmosis system and conduct research for prototype
- 1-3 months: Finalize prototype and begin testing. Correspond with governments and target resorts.
- 1-3 quarters: Conduct more complex and comprehensive field testing in MENA regions.
- 1-3 years: Refine and deploy final version of product.
