Test facility for water, energy technology starts up

BYLINE: Jeff St. John The Fresno Bee

Fresno's newest test facility for water and energy technology -- and the home of five new businesses hoping to find success in those fields -- officially opened for business Thursday with the flick of a switch.

The switch, thrown by Fresno State President John Welty, started the flow of electricity from the solar panels on the roof of the Claude Laval Water and Energy Technology Incubator, a facility run as a partnership between California State University, Fresno, and the Central Valley Business Incubator.

That solar power drove a 50-horsepower, 8-inch-diameter water pump set into the incubator's spacious concrete-floored test center, using a system developed by one of the incubator's new tenants, New Jersey-based WorldWater & Power Corp.

The demonstration before a crowd of about 50 people at the incubator on the Fresno State campus, officials said, illustrates how technologies can be linked to tackle the Valley's present and future needs.

The $4 million incubator "is poised to be a world leader in the development of water, energy and other environmental technology businesses," Welty said.

In the Valley, where continuing growth is expected to put increased strains on already strapped supplies of clean water and energy, "We've got to be willing to take risks, to innovate and take new approaches," he said.

For the five businesses that now call the incubator home, such talk is music to their ears.

"We believe this is going to make Fresno the water technology capital of the world," said Leon Woods, government relations director for WorldWater & Power Corp.

WorldWater & Power, which makes systems that use solar energy to power water pumps, has grown dramatically in the past several years as solar power has come into the economic mainstream, said Quentin Kelly, chief executive.

The company's revenues jumped from about $2 million in 2005 to about $17 million last year, and Kelly said he expects 2007 revenues to be in the $30 million to $35 million range.

The need for alternative sources of power for water pumping are clear in California, where about 10% of the state's peak energy loads are tied up in delivering water from the state's massive aqueduct systems to the pumping stations that deliver water to homeowners' taps, Woods said.

The company's goals also match those of Fresno State's International Center for Water Technology, which is backing an initiative to switch about 200 megawatts of water-pumping energy to solar power and away from more polluting energy sources, he said.

The remaining four companies that now rent space at the incubator are:

PureSense Environmental Resource Management, an Emeryville-based software company that uses technology developed in partnership with NASA's Ames Research Center to measure soil moisture levels using wireless sensors.

Those data appear to PureSense's agricultural customers on a Web-based interface, giving growers continuous monitoring to allow them to make better irrigation decisions on the fly, said Craig Buxton, company CEO.

Golden-State Enviro-Pure Water, a company involved in the marketing, sales, distribution and service of steam distillation technology that can purify water and eliminate contaminants from municipal, agricultural or industrial use. The company is seeking to promote technology developed to provide pure water for U.S. Navy ships for residential and commercial uses.

OXYPRO, a Sanger-based business that makes products to reduce wear and improve efficiency in machinery.

The company plans to use its time in the incubator to develop a "Diesel Fuel Extender" alternative fuel that will mix vegetable oil with diesel fuel to conserve energy and decrease air pollution.

Full Circle Energy Inc., a company involved in designing a prototype ultraclean coal gasification power plant. The company plans to develop processes to turn coal, along with organic material like municipal waste and sewer sludge, into a clean-burning synthetic gas for power generation.

The reporter can be reached at jeffstjohn@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6637.