The river has made an important contribution to local business development in the form of sawmills, mill houses, and as a transport route for timber and firewood. The wood was thrown into the water during high water and was later caught by a “sløe”, a kind of gated structure, in Saghaugen, where the power station stands today. A “sløe” is a gate in the river that collected the wood, which was then tossed ashore.
Sagelvi has housed “village saws” and has also been a source of innovation in earlier times. When gate saws were replaced by circular saws, “Øvre Skjervo” was the first in the Vossa area to use a circular saw. The river had several farm mills and communal mills. Before the railway was established, there was also a tannery in the Kvitle area, where the Sagelvi river flows into the Vosso river.
Sagelvi is a tributary of Vosso in Voss municipality, Hordaland county, and runs together with the Vosso river by Saghaug. The Furegardane power plant uses the water from Sagelvi and is accessed by the E16 highway, 15 km south of Vossevangen. The catchment area used is 14 km2 in size.
Much of the construction process for the Furegardane power plant has been documented and explained. The Hordaland newspaper has written a comprehensive article about the opening of the power plant.
Furegardane power plant has a catchment area of 14 km2. The intake is located at an elevation of 311 and the power station is at an elevation of 34.5, providing a head of 276.5 meters. The waterway consists of a buried pipe, 1000 mm in diameter, over a length of 1950 meters. A 6-jet vertical Pelton turbine is installed. The power plant has an installed generator capacity of 5.49 MVA. The maximum discharge capacity is 2.4 m3/sec. All electricity is transformed up to 22 KV and delivered directly to the grid. The power plant is expected to deliver an annual production of 16.1 GWh, equivalent to the annual consumption of approximately 770 households.
