Investment to develop a 25 kW hydrokinetic canal turbine for DLZ Corp.
SEATTLE, WA [WorldofRenewables.com]
Hydrovolts Inc., a Seattle-based, small-scale hydropower company, today announced it has received investment to develop a 25 kW hydrokinetic canal turbine for DLZ Corp., which is developing several hydropower projects in India.
DLZ Corp., a U.S.-based civil engineering firm with annual revenues of more than $100 million, has obtained permits and a power purchase agreement to develop a 10 MW hydrokinetic power project on the 14-km Chilla Canal in northern India which currently feeds water to a traditional hydropower plant on the Ganges River.
DLZ’s initial investment of $250,000 will fund the manufacture of a prototype 25 kW hydrokinetic turbine.
Under a non-binding letter of intent between the parties, following successful demonstration and delivery of the prototype Hydrovolts turbine, DLZ could potentially order an additional 400 turbines and place them in the canal leading up to the traditional hydropower plant. Hydrovolts estimates that 400 turbines will sell for about $20 million.
“The fact that one canal alone can support up to 400 floating turbines demonstrates Hydrovolts’ enormous potential market. Our turbines can generate reliable, clean energy from water currents in tens of thousands more canals, channels and spillways around the world. The Chilla Canal is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Burt Hamner, CEO of Hydrovolts.
The Hydrovolts Flipwing floating turbine operates like a submerged paddlewheel and is simple to deploy and connect: it just drops in the water and is either tethered or anchored. Electricity generated by the turbine is sent to shore by a power cable linked to the tether. No dams or significant site preparation are needed, reducing costs and minimizing environmental impacts. The turbine is safe for fish because its paddlewheel blades turn slower than the water current – fish just swim around or through it.
Because its turbine generates renewable energy from water currents as slow as 1 m/sec (2 knots), Hydrovolts has a nearly limitless domestic and international market. Hydrovolts estimates that 80,000 turbines, at a value of $1.6 billion, can be deployed in the western U.S. alone. In India, where additional investor interest exists, more than 50,000 man-made canals could be potentially tapped. Overall, the company has received letters of inquiry from more than 15 countries.
The Flipwing turbine can also be used in spillways and other water channels such as wastewater treatment plants, tailraces of existing dams, and discharges of cooling water from thermal power plants. Hydrovolts estimates that more than 20 percent of all wastewater plants have potential to employ Hydrovolts technology to generate renewable energy for use.
Hydrovolts says the turbine is in development and will be available for sale, in various sizes with output from 20 watts to 25 kW, in mid-2011. More information is available on the company website, www.hydrovolts.com.
Although only two years old, Hydrovolts has garnered significant traction by attracting investment, receiving grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and signing partnerships with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Raytheon Corporation.
Based at the McKinstry Innovation Center in Seattle, the company has won national awards, including:
- Cleantech Open – “2009 National Sustainability Award”
- Northwest Entrepreneur Network’s First Look Forum – “Best Investment
Opportunity”
- ZINO Society’s Green Investment Forum – “Best Investment Opportunity”
For more information about Hydrovolts and its turbine, including animation and video, please visit http://www.hydrovolts.com.
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ABOUT Hydrovolts Inc.
Hydrovolts capitalizes upon the large global opportunity of untapped energy of controlled flowing water, enabling clean electricity in places never before possible. The company’s zero-head hydrokinetic turbines offer an economical and easy way to generate reliable, local clean power in millions of locations around the world, including water canals, dam tailraces, thermal cooling discharges, water and wastewater treatment plants, rivers and tidal channels. Hydrovolts technology offers reliability, predictability, cost-efficiency and control unmatched by other renewable energy sources. www.hydrovolts.com