Salmon Gate(TM)

The Salmon Gate is a revolutionary new run of river hydrokinetic system that includes a sense and avoid technology suite to automatically avoid fish and boats, allowing the unimpeded and free use of the waterway.

Transcript

1. SALMON GATE™ Using wild rivers for hydropower in a sustainable way A presentation by Hydrocube.org This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
2. THE PROBLEM WITH IMMOBILE CONCRETE DAMS • Hydroelectric power systems (other than run of river systems) drastically alter wildlife and fish habitat by the formation of artificial lakes • Water is not very energy dense and large artificial lakes are required for pumped hydroelectric storage, and erosion of lake banks is a significant problem • Modern fish ladders that are supposed to allow free passage for fish up and downriver have never been properly studied to prove their effectiveness. In some cases the rate of fish passage for certain species is between 0 and 2 percent. • It is like bulldozing a 6-lane highway to make a shopping mall and making the cars follow a footpath and telling people we have solved the problem • Undamming rivers improves biotic diversity and fish passage. • Dams do not move out of the way for boats and the river is no longer navigable, impacting human commerce and subsistence ways of life • There are other options available for renewable energy storage like hydrogen electrolysis and storage, which occupies less space and has lower environmental impact than dam-based energy storage. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
3. OUR SOLUTION • The Salmon Gate is a hanging run of river hydrokinetic system, mounted on an aluminum truss spanning the river, that can retract turbines out of the water automatically • The sense and avoid system uses the same technology as advanced drones, self driving cars and airplanes • Computer vision and sonar sensors inform the Salmon Gate to detect and avoid salmon, other fish and boats passing through the gate • The linear servo motors retract the turbines in an energy efficient manner when a fish or vessel nears the gate • They can also retract the turbines on the onset of freeze-up in winter or during extremely hot summers (to cool the river) • The turbines can produce a small amount of wind power even when retracted, and heated blade options are available for winter use
4. BENEFITS Harness the power of wild rivers without building an immobile, ugly, habitat-altering concrete dam Reduce impacts on salmon and other keystone species and improve fish passage rates Connect with renewable energy storage systems like batteries and hydrogen electrolyzers for long term energy storage Boost renewable power generation during particularly wet summers when solar power is low Most climate models of the Arctic indicate an increase in average precipitation along with warming due to climate change due to higher atmospheric energy content Allow boats and fishing vessels to continue using the river as if the hydroelectric facility was not there
5. ABOUT HYDROCUBE.ORG • We are a renewable energy technology R&D company that licenses out patented technologies under a socially and environmentally conscious business model • Our first patent-pending is our advanced hydrogen fuel cell snowmobile engine • We have other inventions we release open source free of charge on our website like this Salmon Gate • We also help with nonprofit facilitation of larger scale renewable energy systems to help solve climate change by connecting clients to suitable suppliers as a free “concierge service” • Contact us for more details at stefan@hydrocube.org • Or call +1-867-333-0753