Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think

by Peter H. Diamandis

The Smart Grid for Water When IBM “Distinguished Scientist” and chief technology officer for Big Green Innovations Peter Williams says, “The biggest opportunity in water, isn’t in water: it’s in information,” what he’s talking about is waste. Right now, in America, 70 percent of our water is used for agriculture, yet 50 percent of the food produced gets thrown away. Five percent of our energy goes to pump water, but 20 percent of that water streams out holes in leaky pipes. “The examples are endless,” says Williams, “the bottom line is the same: Show me a water problem and I’ll show you an information problem.” The solution to this information problem is to create intelligent networks for all of our waterworks, what’s being called the “Smart Grid for Water.” The plan is to embed all sorts of sensors, smart meters, and AI-driven automation into our pipes, sewers, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, harbors, and, eventually, our oceans. Mark Modzelewski, executive director of the Water Innovations Alliance, believes a smart grid could save the United States 30 percent to 50 percent of its total water use. IBM believes that the smart grid for water will be worth over $20 billion in the next five years, and the company is determined to get in on the ground floor. In the Amazon basin, it has partnered with the Nature Conservancy to build a new computer-modeling framework that allows users to simulate the behaviors of river basins and make significantly better decisions about currently u...