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MINDING YOUR
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| CAPE
OF GOOD HOPE By Mike Ashley |
The pressure is
finally getting to the Cape Charles Sustainable
Technology Park. That's where Energy Recovery
Inc. is setting up shop with its new 50-employee,
$2.5 million plant to build pressure exchangers.
ERI moves into the new facility in May, becoming
the centerpiece of the nation's first
eco-industrial park. |
 artwork by Michael Goodman |
ERI is
commercializing its proprietary pressure
exchanger technology, which improves pumping
processes and makes sea water desalination more
affordable for coastal communities. It's a good
industrial fit for the Virginia shore, which is
seeking eco-friendly industry. Norway native
Leif J. Hauge is president of ERI and the
inventor of the ceramic pressure exchanger. He
and a group of international investors founded
ERI in Chesapeake in 1992. |
| The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration and the Virginia
Coastal Program then funded the design of the
pressure exchanger. Gov. Jim Gilmore also sent
$170,000 to the project, the first-ever
governor's opportunity fund grant for the Eastern
Shore. The first pressure exchanger went on line in the fall of 1997, and ERI has been handling major orders ever since. Hauge anticipates that ERI's market for pressure exchangers will be worth more than $50 million within five years. The park is in a national enterprise community and a Virginia enterprise zone, designations that offer significant financial incentives for companies locating in the park. Hauge is happy to make Cape Charles and the new park home for his business. "Our technology will receive exposure from being involved in this project," he says. Hauge could have chosen another East Coast location for his company: There are three similar eco-industrial parks in the works on the East Coast, but Virginia broke ground first. "Sustainable technology is the way to do business in this new millennium," Hauge says. "You can't really establish an industry that makes our children and grandchildren pay the penalty just for us to have cheaper commodities."
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