business backgrounder | industry
Even though the tidal power idea never came to fruition, Hamner learned enough about water and electric power generation to start
Hydro Volts, a company aimed at producing electricity from the water in irrigation canals.
The water flow from an irrigation canal is more consistent, if less powerful, than tidal currents, Hamner explained. The company is
aimed at providing electric power for commercial users.
Hamner sold his share of Hydro Volts this year and went to work on Hydrobee, an even smaller-scale version of the idea that began
with the Tacoma Narrows, downsized to irrigation canals and reduced again to the size of a Coke can.
In Hamner’s prototype, a user takes the Hydrobee and attaches it to a water source, anything from a kitchen or bath tub faucet or
garden hose to a stream or river.
Water flows into the top of the device and spins a rotor that charges
six AA NICAD batteries. A relatively low flow of 1 gallon per minute
produces about 5 volts of power.
Once the batteries in the device are charged, the Hydrobee can be
disconnected from the water and used later to charge up power-hungry
cell phones, iPads or LED lights.
The whole thing cost about $9 in parts.
Hamner is betting that the combination of affordability and practicality
will make the Hydrobee a success.
“We’re going to bring personal,
portable hydropower to a billion
Hydrobee: www.hydrobee.com
people,” he said.
Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com
And he’s aiming to do it in the most
non-traditional way possible.
“We’re going to bring personal, portable
hydropower to a billion people.”
E x p e r i e n c e h a s b e e n o u r g r e a t e s t t e a c h e r .
W e ’ r e p r a c t i c a l l y p r o f e s s o r s .
O u r s t a t e a n d l o c a l t a x g u r u s s e r v i n g y o u
f o r 6 0 y e a r s a n d c o u n t i n g .
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Confidence Earned.
fall 2013
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