"Water has been a source of energy for dozens of years"? Well, yes, I guess if you mean MANY dozens. Water power has been used for thousands of years for things like mills etc and to drive other machinery. Even if you are specifically referring to generating electric power, the first hydroelectric system was tested in England in 1878 and the first commercial hydro electric plant was built at Niagra Falls in 1881. So, yes, I guess 130 years is "dozens" (tracing from the Niagra Falls plant) but I bet its more likely you just didn't know any better or bother to look it up.
Now, for the other question of the day. How much does it cost? Just how much does that 200 watt turbine cost you and how long does it take to show a return on investment; keeping in mind that it can't be your only source of power since it can barely run a desktop computer or a pair of light bulbs. I can see why the DoD was interested as the military probably has many applications where portability trumps cost effectiveness. But most of us are not the DoD.
Water has been a source of energy for dozens of years, but it isn’t just massive rivers or the ocean that is capable of doing its part. There are hundreds of canals, streams and other smaller channels that could contribute, and that’s the focus for clean-tech start-up Hydrovolts.
The four-year-old company, which snagged $1.3 million in Series A financing in mid-October 2011, recently completed a test of its portable hydrokinetic turbine technologies in conjunction with the Department of Defense. Hydrovolts is, in essence, a micro-turbine supplier. Its technology using the flow of running water to generate electricity: between 200 watts and 300 watts per turbine. The U.S. Navy test focused on Hydrovolts’ potential to generate power for “expeditionary operations,” keeping batteries charges. The company started additional tests at the Roza Irrigation Canal in Washington in November 2011.
Hydrovolts figures that there are more than 500,000 sites for its micro-hydropower technologies in the form of small streams, canals and even channels creates for wastewater run-off. One of Hydrovolts’ new investors, Michael Fragin, managing partner of Ducat Technology Partners in New York, put it this way:
“Hydrovolts has the ability to grow to exploit a valuable and untapped resource — running water — that is abundant in many regions that lack electricity. As small-scale hydro for renewable energy takes off around the world, Hydrovolts is poised to be a breakthrough leader.”
And just because ’tis the season, I’ll leave you with this thought: the Hydrovolts technology is also powering the Christmas lights being used at a sewage treatment plant in Port Orchard, Washington. The turbine being tested at the West Sound Utility plant there derives its energy from a waterfall feeding one of the discharge pipes there.
