Hydro Energy Entrepreneur Wayne Krouse (Part 5)

SM: How many people did you have helping you out on this?

WK: It was just me. Towards the end of 2007 and in early 2008 I was out of funding and running on fumes. As we progressed into 2008 I was approached by Mike Draper about what we were doing. I related the studies, the engineering, and the work behind it.

SM: How did Mike find you?

WK: By doing a Google search for “hydro renewable”. It was a pure coincidence. He had just finished a solar investment. He was looking for the next generation renewable in water. I walked in the office on January 5 or 6, and I received the phone call. We had an hour and a half preparation. The more I heard the questions, the more I realized there was genuine interest.

I think money can be corrupting to people’s value systems. I could envision one of our units being used to provide not only energy but also provide enough power for clean drinking water. I approached Specific Products in Houston, a company that makes skid mounted water purification systems which are container sized and produce 3,000 gallons of water a day. They do desalinization and purification.

SM: In that scenario you think your device would do hydropower off of ships?

WK: I was thinking more about communities in Africa. I wanted to help the remote villages that have never had power to get power. That would give them power and clean water as well as irrigation water for crops. I see a lot of potential good that way in the future.

SM: How much money did you take in your series A?

WK: I took $2.6 million from Mike and Quercus. I had other offers. I had some offers at $5 million and $6.7 million. I said no to those for a variety of reasons. It was a gut-wrenching decision and a huge leap of faith.

SM: Are you actually powering a plant right now?

WK: We have done prototypes, but the project in Hastings will be the first commercially licensed product.

SM: It is an existing plant that you are retrofitting with your technology, correct?

WK : Right. We benefit from the clean water coming through. We have a patent that lest us capture wasted energy and create an additional system around it. It is only 12 feet in diameter but has a capacity of 100 kilowatts, which is enough to power 100 homes. We are going to put two units in Hastings, which will be a 5.7% increase of their base capacity.

SM: How much of the US energy capacity is hydropower?

WK: Anywhere from 7-8%, which is 120 ,000 mega watts. Of all of that, approximately 50% is privately owned and operated and the rest is operated by the federal government. What we would like to do if we can get our leaders in DC to see the vision we will get the federal government to retrofit and utilize the existing infrastructure. Typically, states have removable portfolio standards, and in a lot of states conventional hydro is not recognized. We are working to educate our leaders in DC. We believe we are as environmentally friendly as solar and geo-thermal and can also make a big impact on America’s energy independence. We are not reliant on subsidies, but if we had a little help that could really help some locations.

SM: Do you think the 5% increase at Hastings will be representative of most other potential projects?

WK: That depends on the type of facility. Some hydro facilities are very high energy, but it may be because it is a product of the amount of flow as well as the elevation of the water used for generation. Some bring water down hills, which gives them huge leverage. In those cases we may only get a 1% increase in efficiency. Regardless, it is additional capacity.

SM: You said 8% of America’s energy is hydro. Could that number change with a broad deployment of your technology?

WK: The potential easily exists to increase US capacity by 20%. The Department of Energy did a head-based hydro study in which they said there was 185,000 mega watts of potential additional hydro out there.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Hydro Energy Entrepreneur Wayne Krouse
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