Hydro Project

[collegeboy]

Hi there, new to the site and from reading through it I find it very interesting and great for college research in Ireland.

I am currently trying to design a Micro-hydro system for my final year Electrical Engineering project. So far I have decided on the water source, however the head is only 2m and the flow is (15 m/sec cubed) The potential power output is calculated at approx. 195Kw. I don't require all this plus it would be impossible to harness this as the river is in my hometown and is too wide. All I need is to be able to generate between 2-5kW at 240V @ 50HZ.

I am currently looking into a Kaplan turbine or a water wheel. As this project is only for research and report purposes I don't have to build the actual plant, all I need is some design information and any help available would be grateful.

Also as part of the project I must build a small model of a system, just for demonstration purposes in the classroom. Again any links or help would be be very grateful.

Thanks in advance and again great site.

Collegeboy

[ghurd]

For the model, a stepper motor from an ink jet printer will charge AA batteries, or light up LEDs quite easy.

Red LEDs are the easiest to light.  Also need a resistor or the LEDs will pop.

Lots of stepper / LED / battery info here:

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2006/4/25/184337/514

More scattered around if you "google search the board" (menu at top right) for stepper motor.

Could use compressed air instead of water.  Less mess in the class room.

And it should make some serious RPM compared to water from the tap.

G-

[DanG]

Plugging "Kaplan turbine" into Wikipedia gives two good diagrams from an Austrian Utility, but then plugging their name into google & browsing their 'news' and 'photos' yielded a link to "200kw units the size of phone booths" they gang sets of five together with... you're going to have to work to get more data out, German language sites etc.. but the examples for run of the river or low head impounding should have many links available just from their electricy producing site names...