Kreneon · Technical lead · 2026 to now
Signed records for plants that make new water
For the cities and companies that need new water supply
Texas could be 5.8 million acre-feet of water a year short by 2080 if its worst drought on record comes back, and the plants that make new water, from desalination to industrial reuse, need money to get built. Kreneon is designing contracts for cities and companies to fund those plants together, and the registry those contracts settle against. Mike Ulwelling, Kreneon’s CEO, who started Ideagility with me in 2010, brought me in as technical lead, and I architect that registry with the Kreneon team, so each plant’s output arrives as a signed record that a lender, a buyer and a regulator can all trace back to the meter.
Built with Mike Ulwelling and the Kreneon team
The problem
About one in four
Texans in 2080 would have less than half the city water they need in a repeat of the worst drought on record, if none of the state water plan is carried out.
The short version
The financing gap
Self-reported numbers
Financing is one of the hold-ups for the reuse and desalination plants Texas is counting on, and lenders are asked to lend against them on spreadsheets each producer fills in about itself.
My part
Signed at the meter
I architect the registry, and with Mike Ulwelling and the Kreneon team we’re building it so a device at the plant signs each reading as the water is produced, and nothing counts until that signature checks out.
What it makes possible
Funded together
We’re building it so a city and the companies that need water can fund a new plant together, each checking the same signed record instead of taking the producer’s word for it.
Texas is planning for water it doesn’t have yet
Texas plans its water around what would happen if the worst drought on record came back. The newest state plan, adopted in July 2026, projects that if none of the plan is carried out, Texas would be 3.6 million acre-feet a year short by 2030 and 5.8 million by 2080, and by then more than half of the gap would fall on the water that cities and towns supply.
By 2080 that would leave about one in four Texans with less than half the city water they need during that drought. The plan puts the cost of its projects at nearly $174 billion, more than double the last plan’s estimate, and about a fifth of the water it plans to add by 2080 would come from reuse and desalination.
Texas’s yearly shortfall in a repeat of the worst drought on record
Why the plants are hard to pay for
When the state’s planning groups checked on the projects in its 2022 plan, about 5 percent of the ones they reported on were finished and two thirds were still under way. The state calls it a growing backlog to build before the next drought, and sponsors named financing and contracting among the hold-ups.
Kreneon looks at financing from the lender’s side. A loan for a desalination or reuse plant is repaid from sales of the water the plant delivers, yet lenders are asked to underwrite it from spreadsheets the producer fills in about itself and contracts written from scratch for each deal. Companies that help pay for a plant run into the same problem when they report how much of its water they paid for, because there’s no independent way to check the producer’s numbers.
What we’re building
With Mike Ulwelling, Kreneon’s CEO, and the rest of the team, we’re building a system that starts at the plant’s meter. A device at the plant records production as it happens and signs each reading, and the registry checks that signature and where the reading came from before anything counts. Verified output is designed to be counted into standard lots, with long-term contracts settling against them, so what’s sold is exactly what was produced.
Kreneon’s pledge limits that work to water with clear title from new production, such as industrial reuse, desalination and water drawn from the air, and rules out speculation, hoarding and the exploitation of natural public drinking supplies. Under the pledge, the communities that own a plant keep owning it.
From the meter to the contract
- A device at the plant signs each reading
- The registry checks the signature and where it came from
- Verified output is counted into standard lots
- Long-term contracts settle against those lots
A lender, a buyer and a regulator can trace any lot, contract or report back to the meter that signed it.
How Kreneon’s system is designed to carry a reading from the meter to a contract.
My part
As technical lead I architect the registry, the layer that receives each signed reading and keeps it unchanged from the moment it arrives, so any lot, contract or report built on it can be traced back to the meter that signed it.
The record is built for three kinds of readers. A lender needs to know the water that repays its loan was really delivered, a buyer needs its claim about new water to hold up when someone checks, and a regulator needs a record it can audit. The registry is designed so all three can check the same signed number themselves, without taking Kreneon’s word for it.
Where it stands
In September 2026 Capital Factory selected Kreneon for its All Access Partners Fund, which connects it with investors and corporate partners across Texas. You can read Kreneon’s own account of the work, and the pledge behind it, at kreneon.io.
How it came together
- 2010 Mike Ulwelling and I start Ideagility
- 2026 Mike brings me into Kreneon as technical lead
- Sep 2026 Capital Factory selects Kreneon for its All Access Partners Fund
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