Canals transport water to meet our needs for irrigation and waste treatment: with a new invention by Seattle-based Hydrovolts, they can meet our energy needs as well.
Hydrovolts’ invention is a hydro-kinetic turbine designed to float in canals. One turbine produces anywhere from 50 watts to 25 kilowatts of energy, or enough to power several American homes or an entire village in the developing world. They can be scaled up and deployed in groups to make more power.
Hydrovolts’ turbine systems are in a class of technology that uses the power of flowing water to generate energy known as micro-hydro. Micro-hydro is praised as a way of gathering renewable energy from the existing movement of water. However, most micro-hydro to date has been put in place in free-flowing streams and rivers.
Hydrovolts’ contribution to the sector of micro-hydro is that it gathers energy from waterways
that have already been altered by human activity: canals such as those used for crop irrigation. Using canals as an energy source has advantages from an engineering perspective as well. Since they are engineered systems, canals have a uniform depth and width, and are generally managed by engineers who can provide predictable water flows.
Because of the similarities in structure and operations of canals around the world, Hydrovolts’ invention could be rapidly applied in many locations, bringing a renewable energy source to places that did not have one previously.
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4 Responses to “Creating Energy from Irrigation”
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[...] 16: Hydrovolts is a Artemis Top 50 Water Technology company, and is nominee for the Katerva Global Sustainability Award. Leave a comment Click here to cancel [...]
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I am CEO of Hydrovolts Inc. and must offer this clarification – our turbines can make from 50 watts to 25 kW of power – it depends on the size of the canal and the speed of the water. Thank you Katerva for this recognition!
what is the cost of this kind of turbines such as if we want to install it at water course have 20 cusec
Please see our updated website at http://www.hydrovolts.com