Having met and spoken to them at length at the recent SIWW, I got an idea of their operating mindset. Their priority is not attaching photovoltaic equipment in the near future.
Don’t get me wrong. They are aware how strong
the power water nexus is. If the power systems fail, the water treatment systems will fail. And FLC bears the penalties, not the photovoltaic equipment supplier. (I am sure future design will incorporate solar sourced power, just not now).
Right now, they want their reputation to stand out. Their priority is get all the smart packaged installations (Nirobox and Aspiral) to work at the installation sites, as promised. Integrating photovoltaic equipment into their products is not their priority because they don’t want their customers to give them excuses that their promised specifications have failed at the sites because of power failures.
What is priority, their strength, and current focus on product R&D, is to improve the processes and get cleaner effluent. Not develop models with better bells and whistles. For instance, the newer models of Aspiral will have a combination of MABR and MBR because they know how to get the processes of these 2 systems, utilise their strengths, integrate in one unit to raise the effluent to even higher purity levels. Higher effluent with MABR at comparable lower opex will get customers to switch from MBR.
If you get a chance, speak to Ilan Wilf and Ronen. Ilan is global head of marketing. He has a strategic roll out plan for the smart packaged products. And because he talks at the B to B level with utilities, BOTs, consultants etc, he knows what the market needs.
Unfortunately, I don’t get a sense of product development, why they do what they do with the products, from Henry and Richard Irving because they are big picture, broad strokes kind of people. And their audience are investors and shareholders who glaze over details of the actual products.
I hope this has help to explain FLC better to you.
