Water became a security asset in 2026, and Cleantech Group’s four innovation lists show where the innovator response is forming. Strikes on Gulf desalination plants during the Iran war, and a U.S. political fight over data center water use, moved water from a utility concern to a question of national and industrial self-determination.
Across the 2026 Global Cleantech 100, APAC Cleantech 25, LATAM Cleantech 25, and Cleantech 50 to Watch, 28 awardees touch water. They cluster in three places: (1) desalination designed to run small and on cheap heat, (2) wastewater treatment that deploys now, and (3) water streams mined for critical minerals.
Two gaps stand out: the APAC Cleantech 25 has no water company, and no awardee on any of the four lists targets data center water, though several could serve it.
Why 2026 Changed the Water Conversation
Three forces in 2026 turned water scarcity from a slow-moving climate risk into a near-term security and political issue.
The Iran war exposed desalination as critical infrastructure. Strikes hit desalination plants in Iran and Bahrain, and Kuwait and the UAE also reported missile-related damage to plants. The exposure comes from concentration: more than 90% of the Gulf’s desalinated water comes from 56 plants, and the region supplies 40% of the world’s desalinated water. Because these plants are integrated into national grids, damage to one can cascade into power outages. Saudi Arabia still plans roughly $80B in new plants, so desalination demand is growing while its security model faces new questions.
Data centers made water a ballot issue. Through 2026, opposition to AI data center campuses spread across party lines, driven by electricity bills, land use, and water. Water was a sharp local argument where supply was already tight. The November 3 midterms turned that opposition into results. Voters in ten states decided 41 local data center measures and constrained or banned development in all but one, including at least 18 bans and four moratoriums. For water innovators, the result raises the bar for siting: operators are likely to need to show low or zero freshwater withdrawal to win approval, which turns reuse, alternative sources, and water-free cooling into permitting requirements.
Scarcity went mainstream. The United Nations warned in January 2026 that the world risks “water bankruptcy,” and the World Resources Institute expects water demand in Latin America to rise 43%. Cleantech Group’s 50 to Watch frames the result as a shift from the green premium to a “sovereignty premium,” in which water supply sits alongside energy and critical minerals as a matter of self-determination.
Water Across the Four Lists
The Global Cleantech 100 carries the most water depth (12 awardees), while the LATAM Cleantech 25 and 50 to Watch carry eight each.
[GRAPHIC]Innovators Are Redesigning Desalination for a Less Secure World
The 50 to Watch has more desalination innovators than any previous edition, and none of them look like the Gulf’s mega-plants. The war showed that large, grid-coupled desalination is a concentrated target. The incoming generation decouples desalination from the power plant, shrinks it, or turns its waste into revenue.
- Running on cheap heat. Waterwhelm uses forward osmosis driven by waste heat and needs less heat than the closest thermal competitors, so it can co-locate with distilleries, chemical plants, and hydrogen producers. Cetos Water separates water with a solvent and releases it with low-grade heat, with 99.98% solvent recovery.
- Cutting the energy draw. Harmony Desalting’s variable-pressure batch reverse osmosis cuts energy use and reduces membrane fouling through periodic rinsing.
- Removing the discharge problem. Brine discharge is desalination’s largest environmental liability and a key permitting barrier. Kendel converts it into hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide, and magnesium and calcium compounds that Chilean mines currently import. Chile, in a megadrought since 2010, already runs 24 desalination plants and is likely to build more.
- Treating the hardest streams. On the Global Cleantech 100, ZwitterCo, Aquafortus, and Aqua Membranes extend membranes and pretreatment into concentrated industrial brines.
The common thread is desalination that an industrial user can site on location, run on energy it already wastes, and permit without an ocean outfall. That profile fits industrial buyers today and, after this year, any government rethinking how much of its water supply sits in a handful of coastal plants.
Wastewater Is the Water Market That Deploys Today
Wastewater treatment is the largest water category across the lists (nine awardees). Desalination adds supply; industrial reuse slows the drawdown now, and newer low-energy processes cut both water and energy bills.
The lists split on approach:
- Global Cleantech 100: engineered and scaled. Membrion (silica gel membranes, with Lam Research in its latest round), Moleaer (nanobubbles), Gross-Wen (algae), and Indra (modular physio-electrical units) are commercial companies serving municipal and industrial buyers.
- LATAM Cleantech 25: biological and service-led. O2Eco uses bacterial bioremediation and modular sludge dewatering. ALIS treats industrial wastewater with microalgae and captures CO₂. ZhanaSolutions sells grease separation as a service across more than 25 Colombian municipalities. This matches the report’s “bio-industrial” thesis: biology applied to industries already operating, often fed by waste streams.
- 50 to Watch: contaminants as the entry point. Coflux Purification captures and destroys per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in wastewater with ultraviolet photocatalysis, selling into a market driven by compliance.
The early-stage signal is a move from treating more water to removing specific contaminants and recovering specific value. That is where the next section picks up.
Water Streams Are Becoming Mineral Feedstock
The water and critical minerals agendas are converging, and five awardees sit on both. In every case the water stream carries a second revenue source, which matters in a market where it is often unclear who pays for water treatment.
- Brine as an ore. Biometallum (LATAM Cleantech 25) uses engineered extremophile bacteria to extract lithium from brine with little water use. Kendel’s brine recovery sells reagents back to mining. Cetos Water positions its membrane-less process across industrial water, critical minerals recovery, and desalination.
- Mine water as a resource. SiTration (Global Cleantech 100) recovers critical materials from acid mine drainage, turning a legacy liability into supply.
- Wastewater as a selective source. ChemFinity (50 to Watch) uses molecular-recognition membranes to isolate target metals from waste streams and wastewater.
For water investors, mineral recovery improves the economics of treatment. For critical minerals buyers, water streams offer feedstock outside the concentrated refining chains the 50 to Watch flags as a sovereignty risk. Expect more water companies to pitch themselves as mineral suppliers, and investors to value them that way.
What to Watch in 2027
- Distributed desalination procurement. Watch whether Gulf and Mediterranean governments add modular, decentralized capacity to their desalination plans.
- Brine rules. As desalination capacity grows, brine discharge is likely to face tighter limits, making brine valorization (e.g., Kendel) a permitting advantage.
- Data center water commitments. No awardee targets data center water yet, though several could serve it: Wint (leak detection and consumption cuts), Pani Energy (treatment operations), ZwitterCo and Membrion (cooling water treatment and reuse), and Ferveret (liquid cooling efficiency). Moratoriums and the midterm results give operators a reason to sign water reuse and water-free cooling deals, so we expect to see more data center water awardees in the 2027 lists.
- Water companies priced as mineral suppliers. Rounds and offtakes where investors value a water treatment company on recovered lithium, rare earths, or reagents.
- South-to-South transfer. Indian, Chilean, and Brazilian modular treatment exported to other water-stressed, low-infrastructure regions.
