Technology▼Solutions
Creating electricity with undammed hydropower
One of the first field tests of a truly re-
newable approach to producing elec-
tricity from river currents is set for
mid-2004 in a river north of Boston.
Alexander Gorlov designed the “no
head” turbine at Northeastern Univer-
sity. It is only one of many proposed
devices in development that could
extract power from water with min-
imal environmental damage, but
this patented prototype has gained
international interest, several part-
ners, and “hard-to-get” funding to
move the technology beyond just
laboratory tests. Thanks to collabo-
ration with Verdant Power, GCK
Technology, and a half-million-dol-
lar grant from the Massachusetts
Renewable Energy Trust (MRET),
the upcoming test will collect im-
portant data by evaluating the
Gorlov turbines as part of an inte-
grated system that converts free-
water flow into electricity.
Gorlov’s interest in developing a
technology that extracts power from
water without destroying the environ-
ment dates back to 1958−1960, when
he helped design Egypt’s Aswan Dam.
“Hydropower has developed a very bad
reputation [and] not because of the
turbines, but because of the dams,” he
explains. Gorlov is an emeritus me-
chanical engineering professor and di-
rector of the Hydro-Pneumatic Power
Laboratory at Northeastern University
in Boston and chief technology officer
for GCK Technology in San Antonio,
Texas. His triple-helical turbine design
does not require a dam and has spun
successfully in tests conducted in
water bodies around the globe over the
past several years.
Generating hydropower with con-
ventional turbines requires pressure
created by dams. But building dams
disrupts the natural environment, in-
cluding fish migration, so any new
large-scale conventional hydropower is
not considered “green”, according to
Carol Werner, executive director of the
© 2004 American Chemical Society
Environmental and Energy Study In-
stitute (EESI), a nonprofit organization.
However, she says that EESI promotes
technologies like the Gorlov turbine
that can capture energy from the flow
of water without dams because fish
can swim around the turbines.
GCK TECHNOLOGY
These Gorlov turbines are 1 m in diameter and 2.5
m in length, sit inside a cage, and will be installed ters since March 2002 and has gener-
in Massachusetts’ Merrimack River later this year. ated some electricity.
The Gorlov turbines can work in
shallower waters better than conven-
tional turbines, so this technology
can bring hydropower to places dams
couldn’t go, says Trey Taylor. He is
president and head of marketing
development for Verdant Power, the
independent hydropower systems in-
tegrator in Virginia that is partnering
with Gorlov and GCK Technology.
And in terms of renewable energy,
water currents are much more de-
pendable than solar or wind, he adds,
which may explain why the number
of similar designs he is aware of has
grown to 38 from 6 just two years ago.
The demonstration project in the
Merrimack River is important for the
hydropower industry because it will
be a full integration of the turbine,
generator, and distribution system,
something we usually don’t see in
early field tests, says Michael Bahleda,
area manager for Hydro, Renewables,
and Economics for the Electric Power
Research Institute, a nonprofit energy
research consortium. Usually, if a tur-
bine even gets to demonstration,
FEBRUARY 1, 2004 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ■ 55A
most tests are strictly for spinning and
mechanics, he adds.
Gorlov started developing his tur-
bine in 1993, and Northeastern patent-
ed it in 1994. GCK Technology holds
the exclusive license, and Verdant is
one of three companies with contracts
to use the turbines in field demonstra-
tions. Gorlov chose the helical design
because it is “immune” to the direction
of the water flow and the axis can be
set up vertically or horizontally de-
pending on water depth. He says that
the plan is to install six twin triple-
helix turbines in a vertical, side-by-
side arrangement in the Merrimack
River estuary tidal streams. This coat-
ed aluminum turbine is 1 meter (m)
in diameter (diam) and 2.5 m in
length. Each twin turbine will sit in
its own cage attached to a barge un-
derwater. A similar helical turbine
design has spun in South Korean wa-
Over the years, Gorlov has man-
aged to find research support from
the U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE), the U.S. Navy, the National
Science Foundation, and the New
England Power Co. Yet getting federal
funding in the United States has been
difficult because there isn’t much
money for renewable energy. In fact,
DOE’s National Renewable Energy
Laboratory does not research hydro-
electric power technologies. The
funds being used to test the turbine
in the Merrimack River come from
the MRET fund, which is one of 17
funds in 12 states totaling $3.5 billion.
These state funds are generally col-
lected with a small surcharge on utili-
ty bills to support development of
renewable and clean energy.
“We looked for projects that were
well past the blueprint stage but had-
n’t received too much commercial
testing, that did well in peer review,
and showed promise for the local
area,” says Chris Kealey, a spokesper-
son for the Massachusetts Technology
Collaborative, the organization that
administers MRET grants. Verdant
will contribute an additional $300,000
to the Merrimack demonstration.
Gorlov says that in the Merrimack
demonstration, “Turbines represent
just a part of the system.” Here, GCK
Technology and collaborators at
Verdant are working out the details
related to system installation and op-
eration, such as securing the appara-
tus in the water, harmonizing the
turbines with electric generators, and
connecting everything to the local
power grid. Gorlov says it could take a
few years to make this technology a
widespread reality.
Even though the power output
from the Gorlov turbine is small be-
cause of the slow speed and low
torque, at least it can extract some
power from otherwise unproductive
sites, says James Sysko, a hydropower
consultant in Bethel, Maine. His at-
tempt to power a small hotel with
Gorlov turbines has been a challenge.
But he is optimistic that capitalizing
on many little sites could equal the
size of a large dammed area, without
the environmental impacts.
GCK Technology and Verdant share
this vision of the turbines as a sub-
stantial source of renewable distrib-
uted power. “The concept behind
[these] turbines is that as you put in a
number of them, you start to build a
whole field,” says Taylor. The Merri-
mack River flows at about 3 knots, so
he expects the demonstration project
to yield 20 kilowatts (kW). On the basis
of studying the size of the river, the
river’s capacity will max out at 500 kW.
Other locations in the United States
and around the world—including
ocean currents—could generate much
more power. For example, Gorlov esti-
mates that the Uldolmok Strait in
South Korea, which flows at 12 knots,
could generate hundreds of megawatts
of capacity from tidal currents.
Once these turbines are successful-
ly integrated with generators, Gorlov
and Taylor have various ideas on how
to expand their use. The turbines
could be part of modular systems that
float on catamarans in remote loca-
tions. Hydropower generation could
be packaged with water purification,
desalination, or hydrogen production
or be hybridized with solar and wind
power options. Before all that will be
possible, however, they need a cost-ef-
ficient product that works consistently.
The best way to keep production costs
down right now is to standardize basic
equipment, says Taylor.
Gorlov says that he “receives
dozens of inquiries from around the
world on a day-[to]-day basis” regard-
ing possibilities for these turbines. In
addition to U.S. projects in Massachu-
setts, Maine, and Long Island, N.Y., a
2.2-m-diam stainless steel Gorlov heli-
cal turbine commissioned by the
Korean Ocean Research and Develop-
ment Institute will be installed in
South Korea during the summer of
2004. Other small field research pro-
jects are under way in Brazil’s Amazon
River and coming soon to Ireland.
—RACHEL PETKEWICH
Applied Marine Sciences (AMS)
an environmental consultancy is
seeking qualified
Sr. Scientists/Proj.Mgrs.
Go to www.amarine.com/jobs
for details.

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Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)
CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
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The EPFL is an equal opportunity employer.

56A ■ ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / FEBRUARY 1, 2004