Guido Schmidt, senior policy expert at EIP Water Secretariat talks about the importance of demonstration on a interview published on the Eco-innovation website of the European Commission.

Schmidt says " that one major focus so far has been demonstration sites. EIP Water has identified about 120 demonstration sites across Europe where significant work on water-related innovation is taking place. An EIP Water online marketplace connects people and projects in the sector, provides a global overview of water innovation hubs and provides information about demonstration sites for water-related technologies that can be visited. “Lack of information about demonstration sites was one of the barriers hampering take-up of innovation,” Schmidt underlines.

"That there is so much activity across demonstration sites shows that many innovative water technologies are “already working,” Schmidt adds. (...) Technologies for the treatment of water and the recovery of such resources already exist, but these now need to be demonstrated, and plans to take the technologies to market need to be drawn up."

POWERSTEP has been established to demonstrate with full scale case-studies across Europe that energy positive sewage treatment plant have market penetration potential.

POWERSTEP uses concepts and technologies that have been tested in laboratories and pilot scale plants. Their full-scale commercial references with a reliable assessment of process efficiencies under realistic conditions remain at stake. POWERSTEP aims to demonstrate their viability to ensure a successful market deployment of the new technology.