Accelerate H2O Partners With Isle Inc. To Establish Texas Water & Waste Water Technology Commercialization And Procurement Program

Accelerate H20, a Texas statewide entity created to discover, promote and invest in new and existing technologies that have potential to fill demands and needs in Texas' $9B  water technology market has entered into a partnership with Isle Inc. an independent technology and innovation consultancy specializing in clean technologies. Under the agreement, Accelerate H20 will work with Isle to deliver a series of Technology Approval Group (TAG) meetings in Texas over the course of 2015. The meetings will follow Isle’s proven TAG meeting format, which has delivered some 100 sessions throughout the world over the last 10 years.

“The partnership between Accelerate H20 and Isle will provide a valuable contribution towards the objectives of both organizations”, said 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.

Accelerate H2O and Isle will work together to bring the most forward thinking water agencies and organizations 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 commercialization.

“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 organizations who share a common goal” explained Bill Kelly, President of Isle Inc. “We look forward to working with Accelerate H20 to bring new innovative water technologies to the key stakeholders in Texas, as well as discovering new technologies within the state that we can introduce to the rest of the world”.

About Accelerate H2O
AccelerateH2O was formed to identify the most efficient and effective pathway for technology development and deployment across Texas’ residential, industrial, agricultural, and utility end-users. With over eighteen university research centers, 4600 water agencies, 5000+ medium and large corporate campuses, and thousands of farms and ranches, Texas represents an undiscovered $9B water technology marketplace. Yet its first and foremost mission is to solve the most challenging problems facing Texans due to the ongoing drought and leverage opportunities sparked by the continued growth of the state economy.

About Isle Inc.
Isle identifies emerging technologies and accelerates their market uptake through their global innovation forum – the Technology Approval Group (TAG). TAG has been operating outside the US since 2005 and in Orange County since 2011. With a membership base of over 100 water utilities, this innovation forum will gain access to emerging technologies relevant to the US water industry. The TAG model is focused on supporting technology start-up companies by combining Isle’s technical skills, with the experience and engagement of the US water utilities, and the financial backing of investment specialists in North America and Europe.