HYDROVISION Industry Fund

The foundation plans to partner with middle schools in Arizona, Washington state and the United Kingdom to collaboratively explore hydropower. The expected benefits from this funding would include: increased knowledge of the many benefits of hydropower worldwide as well as in the local community; career pathway awareness for jobs related to the hydropower industry; and greater appreciation for hydropower. This education program is designed to encourage additional partners to join in the outreach effort.

GenH plans to deploy 40 kW of its Adaptive Hydro technology on irrigation district canals in the southwestern United States. This technology can help produce clean energy while solving environmental problems associated with dams. The power generated by these pilot projects will generate power for the grid or be consumed on-site by GenH’s Beyond the Grid applications. The company said its technology can be used to electrify up to 5% of the available technical resource.

Leaders in the hydropower industry often find it challenging to demonstrate the long-term benefits of hydropower projects, and it requires further climate-related information to maximize opportunities. Open Hydro’s platform calculates and tracks greenhouse gas emissions from reservoirs. The platform represents a significant step forward in mobilizing investments to drive the growth of hydropower. With the funds, Open Hydro will spearhead introduction of the platform into the North American hydropower sector. They will conduct a comprehensive outreach campaign, collaborating closely with key industry players.

Ukrhydroenergo is the largest hydropower generating company in Ukraine and operates 10 hydropower plants, two of which are pumped storage projects. The Ukrainian hydro utility faces massive rebuilding efforts, reporting before the destruction of the Kakhovksa hydro plant that it had lost more than 2 GW of generating capacity due to shelling by the Russians. The company’s direct loss at that time was estimated at about 1 billion dollars.

WWS Wasserkraft’s system is intended to provide a more cost-effective option for upstream and downstream fish passage at dams up to 20 feet high, thus hopefully stopping the removal of some non-powered dams and encouraging more small hydro development. The funds will help verify the potential and advantage of the system and let the company work on laboratory tests.