SAHT Energy, LLC

Gravity Wave Extractor

The Suction-Augmented
Hydrokinetic Turbine

A new innovation in hydropower designed for canals and rivers. SAHT creates deep suction, providing access to energy that is below the threshold of existing technologies — with no civil works required to deploy.

Learn about the technology See the research
11 TWh/yr Estimated Pacific Northwest hydrokinetic potential by 2025 (EPRI)
50 GW Potential developable power on North American canal systems
$3B+ Estimated annual wholesale value of that Pacific NW capacity
US 9,097,233 Patented August 2015

Welcome to SAHT Energy

A new hydropower industry, built for waterways that already exist

At SAHT Energy we're developing the Suction-Augmented Hydrokinetic Turbine — an innovative new turbine that can revolutionize the hydropower industry by adding huge new capacity, and requires no civil works to deploy.

Suction-augmentation is a game-changer for low-head, low-impact hydropower because it enables any canal or river to generate power immediately, with no need for complicated infrastructure or large loans for development. The SAHT will create a new energy industry comparable to wind farming by generating industrial-scale power on canals and rivers worldwide.

CFD velocity profile showing high-velocity flow entering the SAHT's side duct and striking the internal wing.
Velocity profile — flow entering the side duct strikes the internal wing, creating a deep suction vortex behind the rotor that pulls water through the funnel and augments energy extraction.

The Opportunity

Water is one of civilization's fundamental deliverables

The EPRI publication Assessment of Water Potential and Development Needs (table 5-1) puts estimated hydropower gains by 2025 from hydrokinetic turbines on natural waterways at 11 TWh/yr in the Pacific Northwest alone. The market size on canals and waterway systems is estimated at double this figure, given how easily turbines can be deployed along man-made waterways and the sheer volume of water transiting civilization's waterway systems.

Terrestrial hydrokinetics (THK) harvests a small portion of the gravity energy from waterways, similar to wind energy extraction — but turbines have multiple opportunities, at a plethora of locations, to extract reinvested gravity energy from the same water all along its journey. The aggregate power is enormous.

Currently, megawatts of electricity sell for about $40 wholesale. The potential value of 11 TWh is over $3 billion annually — and the international market is many times larger.

Advancing from flow studies to prototyping

Proof-of-concept flow studies have been completed, and SAHT Energy is advancing toward prototyping with research partners including Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Minnesota Duluth.

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