Emily Morris, CEO and founder of Emrgy, said her inspiration for making electricity in places that some people might find unlikely was seeing the vast network of U.S. irrigation infrastructure, with water swiftly flowing through it. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation alone operates 1,600 miles of main canals.
Irrigation canals in the U.S. are made of concrete or stone and transport water from main sources to fields. Emrgy units look something like a propeller with blades rotating parallel to the ground. Water in the canals turns them and then flows past, without damming the water. The spinning turbines do change how the water moves through the canals, slowing it, so Emrgy works closely with water operators.
An installation is made up of modules that each generate 5-25 kilowatts, but Morris said the company would never deploy a single turbine, just as a solar company would not install a single solar panel on a roof. Traditional large-scale hydropower projects have faced scrutiny for their environmental impacts, including submerging communities, slowing rivers, and blocking fish migrations. Some are being demolished. On the other hand, they generate enormous amount of energy, as long as it rains and snows.
Emrgy’s systems are currently in use at Denver Water, Oakdale Irrigation District in California, a district in Salt Lake City and one in New Zealand. The company has a pilot in South Africa and is expanding.