Island Energy Systems Tour - Micro-Hydro

http://solarnexusinternational.com

A tour of a micro-hydroelectric system on Orcas Island, Washington, USA

Category:

Education

Tags:

• micro-hydro
• orcas
• island
• off-grid
• solar
• electricity
• microhydro
• hydro
• pelton
• Harris
• outback
• power
• HDPE

[jwaflergmailcom]

That is awesome!!!! where can you buy those?



[IslandEnergySystems]

@jwaflergmailcom  We can supply the parts. drop me a note with the particulars of your site (head and flow) and I'll get you a quote. Thanks. Eric

[birdwing98]

Nice job Eric! Have you ever considered relocating the rectifier assembly closer to the battery bank? That way you're running AC to the house and could use smaller wires. Is the decision to run DC a safety factor? Thanks.

[IslandEnergySystems]

@birdwing98 Thanks for your note. The decision to run DC was mostly based on what equipment was available when I built it and my technical understanding at the time. If I were to do it again I'd go with a 240VAC 3-phase generator with a transformer/rectifier set-up in the power house. I'd like to add a second turbine in parallel to take advantage of high flow times of the year to help heat my house. Maybe the new system will be higher voltage, But I'd have to pull more wires! Yikes

[74VDC]

Why do you not grid tie it? How many months out of the year can you produce 800W? What do you calculate the overall efficiency at ...since you have 110' of head and 315 gpm flow?

[IslandEnergySystems]

@74VDC It would cost $8,000 to $10,000 to bring in the utility power. At 800W output from the turbine that works out to 19 kWh/day total generation. We consume about 10 kWh/day here at the house/office/shop, so the surplus is only 9 kWh/day, or 3280 kWh/year of energy that I'd end up selling to the utility. Its just not worth it. Especially with $25/mo base charge just for being connected.

But really, I built this system to live off-grid, thats the whole point.

[vention4wh]

I'm just a diesel mechanic, not a hydraulics expert but that turbine doesn't look all that efficient to me. The water blasts into the cups but then it's flung out as it spins. That water being flung out seems like it would collide with the other streams as they are entering the cups. My gut instinct tells me that shooting the streams in at a slight downward angle would work better since the water being flung of the turbine would be flung out without colliding with the input streams.

[ginnybiv]

great job,would love to see more hydro set-up all over the island! keep up the good work.

[vention4wh]

@IslandEnergySystems

LOL! You answered a question I asked 2 years ago. LOL! That's got to be some kind of record. Thanks for answering though.

[IslandEnergySystems]

@tjohnathon30 Theres is a 6" flexible plastic pipe caulked into the bottom of the concrete culvert pipe section, and a concrete floor in that vault about 18" down. The water goes out that flex pipe and back into the creek. And then theres another hydro intake right there for a bigger system that goes down the hill another 650 feet.

[IslandEnergySystems]

@vention4wh Thanks for your question. What you can't see in the video is that the cups of the pelton runner are split with a smoothly shaped point in the middle. The nozzles need to be aimed right at that middle point so the stream of water is split and the exhaust water exits smoothly to the side. Look up 'pelton turbine' to find a cross sectional picture of what it looks like and you'll see what I mean.

[tjohnathon30]

where does the water go ???????????????

[toobroke2fight]

@Bnewman8629 His batteries have to stay warm! The ratings are at 77 deg F and the colder they get the less they put out! Puting the bats outside in the woods would be a bad idea! Closing the gap between the two is usually a good idea. With using the large cable he has and the fact that its 50 volts "plus" helps to push the power through the wire! Its hard to "keep it all" in a remote area like that!Hey, Move the house to the stream! Thats the best option. HA HA