Pentair expects water reuse systems
like the one it installed at Target Field to be big business in certain fast-growing global markets.
Pentair CEO Randy Hogan spoke at a clean technology and renewable energy conference last week in New York, where he said the company forecasts that water reuse systems will become an $8.4 billion market by 2016.
Marketing drove the decision to install the water reuse system at Target Field, but in parts of India, China, and Latin America where clean water can be in short supply, economics will be the driver of demand.
Hogan compared on-site water treatment to wireless technology. Many newly developed countries skipped over wired infrastructure and focused instead on building wireless phone and internet infrastructure. Pentair predicts a similar trend is going to emerge around water supplies.
"They're going to go pipeless," Hogan said.
The economics of Target Field's water reuse system were good, says Hogan, but the math is far more compelling in places where population growth is outstripping (or already has outstripped) the supply of clean water.
The company is installing a graywater reuse system at a Ritz Carlton in Bangalore, India, that will be used for irrigation and sanitation. Meanwhile, Brazil is planning to incorporate water-reuse systems in seven new stadiums for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Hogan says Pentair hopes to win at least a few of those contracts.
Hogan also said Pentair doubled the number of new products it introduced in 2010, and it hopes to do the same in 2011. R&D grew to account for about 2.3 percent of the company's spending last year, and Hogan says they're on track to eventually increase that amount to 4 percent.
Source: Randy Hogan, Pentair
Writer:
Dan Haugen