FullCycle Climate Partners Invests in Upgrading Water Infrastructure Systems
InPipe Energy’s innovative In-PRV pressure recovery valve is a new smart water and micro-hydro system that generates carbon-free, baseload, renewable electricity by harvesting excess pressure from municipal water pipelines.
Innovative technology converts excess water pressure into new source of renewable electricity
LOS ANGELES – FullCycle Climate Partners, a growth equity fund investing to scale climate-critical technology, today announced their investment in InPipe Energy, a micro-hydro technology company headquartered in Portland, Oregon.
InPipe Energy’s innovative In-PRV pressure recovery valve is a new smart water and micro-hydro system that generates carbon-free, baseload, renewable electricity by harvesting excess pressure from municipal water pipelines – improving the economics of delivering water while providing essential pressure management that helps save water and extend the life of water infrastructure.
The world’s water infrastructure is energy and carbon intensive. Every year, 1,100 TWh of energy is required to pump, treat, and distribute water to meet global demand. The power produced by InPipe Energy’s system unlocks a new and distributed source of renewable hydro-electricity that can be used by municipal water districts worldwide to reduce the carbon footprint of water distribution.
The sustainability of global water systems is paramount, yet water agencies are challenged with aging infrastructure and rising energy costs. The In-PRV system provides precise pressure management metrics and converts excess pressure into carbon-free power that can be used on-site or metered back to the grid. This helps water agencies offset their energy costs while also saving water and reducing emissions.
“Climate change poses an existential threat and addressing it will require a complete overhaul of our global infrastructure,” said FullCycle Founder and Managing Partner, Ibrahim AlHusseini. “While many countries have made peak carbon commitments, meeting these goals will not be achievable from wind and solar alone. InPipe Energy’s system provides a vital tool that retrofits aging and energy inefficient water infrastructure with a more sustainable and effective alternative.”
InPipe Energy has already successfully deployed commercial installations operating at full capacity that are expected to produce collectively over 300,000 kWh of electricity per year. As the Biden administration moves forward with two infrastructure packages through Congress, $55-$120 billion has been flagged for investment in municipal water infrastructure. InPipe Energy is well positioned to support states and municipalities’ efforts to meet carbon abatement goals in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
“We are thrilled to have FullCycle as our long-term scaling partner, enabling us to deliver our solutions to municipalities worldwide,” said Gregg Semler, CEO of InPipe Energy. “FullCycle’s combination of infrastructure expertise and urgency to battle climate change is what makes them an ideal partner for us.
With this investment, FullCycle will be InPipe Energy’s exclusive global project financing partner for the energy-as-a-service deployment of their In-PRV system to customers across six continents.
InPipe Energy represents FullCycle’s 3rd portfolio investment and meets the firm’s carbon return on investment criteria. Through FullCycle’s proprietary CROI20 methodology, technologies are measured by their capacity to generate the highest climate impact per dollar invested.
About InPipe Energy
InPipe Energy is a renewable energy and smart water technology company that produces renewable energy from existing infrastructure. InPipe Energy has designed and developed a unique pressure recovery valve, the In-PRV. It performs the typical pressure reducing valve (PRV) function, and additionally converts excess pressure into a new source of renewable energy from existing water pipelines. InPipe Energy’s novel, modular approach integrates into water and energy infrastructure with software controls to improve operational efficiencies, save water, reduce carbon and make both water and energy more resilient.
About FullCycle Climate Partners
FullCycle is a growth equity fund accelerating the commercial deployment of climate-critical technologies by providing growth capital to both the companies and their pipeline of early infrastructure projects. FullCycle helps companies bridge the deployment gap between technical validation and full commercial deployment with an innovative asset-led growth model and by enabling an acceleration ecosystem focused on cycle-time reduction. The fund invests in companies and their associated infrastructure projects, with the majority of capital invested in project assets in areas of the economy that most intensely produce greenhouse gases.
For further information, please visit www.fullcycle.com, and contact Davis MacMillan for media requests at [email protected].
SOURCE FullCycle Climate Partners
