Hydro Green Energy wins waterpower industry honor

RP news wires, Noria Corporation
Tags: energy management
At a ceremony May 12 in Washington, D.C., Hydro Green Energy LLC, a renewable energy company operating in the waterpower sector, was presented with the President's Award by the National Hydropower Association (NHA). This prestigious award is given to an NHA member company that has "blazed new pathways to strengthen and invigorate the hydropower industry."

"Hydro Green Energy is honored to be presented with the President's Award and greatly appreciates the support it has received from the National Hydropower Association and its leadership since joining the Association in 2006," said Wayne F. Krouse, chairman and CEO of Hydro Green Energy. "The Hastings hydrokinetic power project was a remarkable achievement for this young and growing renewable energy company and only the first of many projects. To be recognized by NHA for our efforts in advancing the nation's new waterpower technology sector is indeed humbling and deeply satisfying."

Hydro Green Energy has developed a number of patented waterpower technologies that generate clean, renewable electricity in a variety of settings. The company's hydrokinetic power systems generate electricity exclusively from moving water (river currents, tidal currents) without having to first construct dams, impoundments or conduits. The company's hydrokinetic technology platform is also deployable downstream from existing hydropower projects (a system called Hydro+(TM)), which bolsters clean energy output at the site in an environmentally-sound manner.

In Minnesota, Hydro Green has partnered with the City of Hastings to install a two-turbine Hydro+ project downstream from the City's 4.4 megawatt run-of-river hydropower plant at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lock & Dam No. 2. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the project by a 5-0 vote on December 13, 2008. The Hastings project is the only hydrokinetic facility with an operational license from FERC and the only U.S. hydrokinetic power project exporting electricity to the U.S. power grid for sale.

Hydro Green Energy has also developed a patented technology that allows for power generation at existing non-powered lock and dam infrastructure. Known as Lock+, this patented technology is a power-generating lock gate that is deployed in the downstream portion of an auxiliary or active navigational lock, thus converting the facility into a renewable waterpower facility. Hydro Green's technology is also deployable in the cooling water discharge systems at thermal power plants (coal, nuclear) for energy recovery or energy efficiency purposes and is called Efficiency+.

Hydro Green Energy holds U.S. Patent No. 6955049, two international patents and has more than 100 U.S. and international patents pending on the company's core technologies. Hydro Green Energy is presently finalizing the term sheet it has in hand for its Series-B funding, which will allow the company to aggressively move forward on its U.S. and international project pipeline, vigorously defend its intellectual property, continue technology innovation and add several executive level, engineering and regulatory employees.

The company, which is exploring the commissioning of a manufacturing facility, is presently developing waterpower projects in Alaska, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, Texas and Wisconsin.