As water concerns rise, so does HydroPoint |
CITIES, PRIVATE SECTOR TESTING AND IMPLEMENTING SATELLITE IRRIGATION SYSTEMSMonday, January 15, 2007By Loralee Stevens, Staff Reporter PETALUMA – New state legislation and rising fears of water shortages have brought a flood of customers to HydroPoint's door in Petaluma. "During the last eight months there's been a real sea change in people's awareness," said HydroPoint President and CEO Chris Spain. With California beginning to mandate landscape water conservation with Assembly Bill 1881 and increased focus on global environmental issues, HydroPoint said awareness is increasing. "I don't know whether it's the governor's Assembly Bill 1881, which took effect at the first of the year, or Al Gore's movie or a combination of a lot of factors, but we're seeing a definite rise of environmental concern among our customers," Mr. Spain said. "Cost and water savings are still the primary motivations, but there's also a 'this is the right thing to do' attitude." Doing the right thing with HydroPoint technology are 42 municipalities from Florida to Washington, eight out of the nine major U.S. real estate investment trusts and a growing number of California residential and commercial property developers. Founded in 2002 with three full-time employees, HydroPoint now employs 52 and occupies 17,000 square feet of office and assembly space in Petaluma. Currently over 15,000 of the company's WeatherTRAK irrigation control systems are in use, pulling down a constant stream of satellite weather data and coordinating it with local moisture readings to determine when and how much water to apply to plants. In California, a three-year phased-in series of mandates will require separate meters for landscaping exceeding 5,000 square feet, the use of smart controllers and the banning of irrigation run-off. Every city and county in the state must pass an ordinance consistent with the state's Water Resources Model by 2010. Some local cities aren't waiting. Napa, Healdsburg and Petaluma are testing WeatherTRAK at parks and schools. Healdsburg has installed systems at its too largest playing fields and the downtown plaza, said Parks Superintendent Arborist Matthew Thompson. "The jury's still out, because we don't have enough data after one year's use, but we're hopeful we can save 5 to 20 percent water usage," he said. Petaluma is launching a two-year pilot program involving 73 homes and nine city parks. Using grant money from the state's safe drinking water act, Petaluma will install the HydroPoint systems at no cost to volunteer households after a thorough audit of their current water usage and study the results. "Since we're using grant money, the state will be following the program as well," said Petaluma Water Conservation Coordinator David Iribarne. "If we see significant savings we'll develop a permanent program, perhaps with rebates, to promote citywide use of the smart systems." Petaluma, he said, had been waiting for the technology to mature before initiating the pilot. "We selected HydroPoint because it was the only system to receive 100 percent scores on all aspects of the SWAT test," or Smart Water Application Technology protocol. The smart water protocol is a performance standard set up by the state energy commission for irrigation controllers. Investor-backed HydroPoint's fastest growing market has been among large real estate investment trusts. Real estate investment trusts "are very spending-averse," said Mr. Spain. "But once they were convinced, they shared the information with others." Mr. Spain said the company sees potential with builders. "I think this year our greatest growth potential is among builders," he said. "Home builders in Florida and California especially will be looking for value added features" in the slower market. National home builders Shea Homes and Richmond America are putting the systems in their developments, and HydroPoint is finishing a year's pilot program with Pulte Homes . RNM Properties, a commercial builder with 1.6 million square feet under development in the Bay Area including the North Bay, began testing WeatherTRAK systems in Sonoma County just over a year ago, according to CEO Paul Elmore. "We just want to lower operating costs for our tenants," he said. "We don't have enough year-to-year data to say what the savings are definitively, but they're significant – up to 46 percent reduction in water use. We're considering installing the systems on all of our properties. "The technology is very complex and very flexible, taking into consideration the slope, the soil type and the plant type, among other factors. Yet our tenants have found it easy to use and reliable," he said. WeatherTRAK commercial systems start at $1,500, and many county water agencies offer rebates. The Sonoma County agency will rebate up to $1,000 of the cost, and HydroPoint technicians will assist home and business owners with the process. HydroPoint also offers consulting. "People are always in denial when we tell them how much water they're wasting," said Mr. Spain. "Then they do their own checking and discover our figures were too low." In 2005 HydroPoint received $5 million in series B funding from Monitor Ventures and several other investors, including Toro, its OEM partner. The company is close to profitability, but Mr. Spain doesn't rule out another round of funding to support HydroPoint's growth. "Last year our revenues grew over 40 percent. And we think this year will be our best yet," he said. For more information, visit www.HydroPoint.com. |
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