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. The wood was then tossed ashore.
Sagelvi has housed “village saws” and has also been a source of innovation in earlier times. “Øvre Skjervo” was the first in the Vossa area to use a circular saw, when these replaced gate saws. The river had several farm mills and a communal mill. Before the railway was established here, there was also a tannery in the Kvitle district, where the Sagelvi river flows into the Vosso river.
Sagelvi is a tributary of Vosso in Voss municipality, Hordaland county, and runs together with 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 Furegardane power plant has a catchment area of 14 km2. The intake has an elevation of 311 and the power plant is at an elevation of 34.5, which gives a fall height of 265.5 metres. The waterway consists of a buried penstock, 1000 mm in diameter and a length of 1950 metres. A 6-nozzle Vertical Pelton turbine has been installed. The power plant has an installed generator capacity of 5.49 MVA, with a maximum flow rate of 2.4 m3/s. All power is converted 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 electricity consumption for about 770 households a year.