Possible Hydro

[12AX7]

Hello!

Please bear with me while I give just a little boring history..


I have a small river running along my property.  Down stream (about 1.5 miles) there is a small dam, which creates a "pond".  That pond (over 5 acres) is located in a small city (about 9K people) and over the last few years the pond has been having "issues".

It's thought that the dam was built in 1849,  which means it's got about 163 years worth of sediment.   Two years ago,  by the suggestions of the local DNR and other studies,  they emptied the pond for a year thinking that it would "compact" the sediment and give the local "natural" plant life to re-establish their selves.

Needless to say,  their plans just made things worse,  last year (first year it was refilled) it had almost a complete cover of "pond scum"   it stunk and was a terrible sight.

Early this year a couple neighbors (of the pond) started an "association" with the intent of setting long term goals/care to improve the pond and make it useable for fishing and boating.

Short term,  nothing will be done due to costs.  Once the Association receives it's "tax free" status and is established for a year (next year) they hope to receive state/federal and private funds.  But money will be a "on going" problem.

NOW the HYDRO part.....

The online studies I've read says that it's calculated that the impoundment is fed by 26.7cfs and the dam's height is 9ft.

I've run some numbers, and took liberties with the flow and possible efficiencies,  and calculated possible out puts of 8 to 50kw  with the "norm" being about 15kw or 131,400kwh/year.   At .12 per kwh is about $15,700.

I wonder whether my numbers are accurate,  and if it pays to suggest to the association to look into doing a Feasibility study on the dam "supplementing" the cost of the ponds upkeep.    Or am I thinking TOO GREEN?
 

[12AX7]

And on another note..

That reported flow value of 26.7 cfs means that that's whats flowing past my property.
I've a very old thread here,  I guess I should re-look at my possibilities?

http://www.fieldlines.com/index.php/topic,128285.0.html

[keithturtle]

Since you are limited to "run of the river" systems, consider the attached, also available at http://www.peehr.pt/ , look around the site.

I don't know if this really works, but the idea is sound, especially if you can choke most of the cross-section of the flow thru the device.  Anything that won't fit will simply flow around the outside, kind of like the Betz limit principle.

You showed a 55 gallon drum in the flow; a device like Peehr has would be larger to take full advantage of flow.   26 cfs is a very significant resource, good for many kWh daily output.   Even with a modest efficiency unit you'll still harvest tremendous energy for yourself.

This peehr thing is modular, self contained and probably simpler than the underwater VAWT idea.   The A series iterations resemble a jet engine nacelle in 3-D, and the impeller looks like a modified Kaplan fixed pitch.   I think the concept is sound, but judging from the dates on the patent [ http://www.google.com/patents/US6013955.pdf ] and stuff on the website, I don't think it has taken off yet.   It's gonna be a lot of work on someone's part to make it happen

Turtle

[keithturtle]

Here is a 2006 report with more water current turbines than you can shake an impeller at

http://www.oreg.ca/web_documents/verdant_river_turbines_report.pdf

Surely something there will illuminate your imagination.

This was developed after that report was published http://www.vortexhydroenergy.com/ and seems to be rather straightforward, at least the video is neat

Turtle