Hi! I am considering building a hydroelectric plant at an old watermill I inherited from my grandpa. We've done some rough flow rate estimations and that would be somewhere from 0.2 to 0.4 m³/s with a head of 13 meters. But that flow can greatly vary in summer and with heavy rains and melting snow.

Would that be better to go with a turbine that could handle the maximum flow or an intermediate one? What is the process to determine what turbine I need (type and power) and how to be sure it would work most of the time with varying flow. How to regulate the input flow to always keep the upstream dam full? In a more general way, where could I find extensive information on hydroelectric engineering?

Thank you!

I have a semi fast creek in my backyard I’d like a medium system that will charge a battery battery system I have for a solar project.

I’m looking to purchase projects within the US that are sized between 500KW and 5MW. Any leads would be much appreciated:)

Hey Reddit community!

I'm in the process of designing a 50kW hydrogenerator for a project I'm working on and I'm looking for a manufacturer who can bring my design to life. The hydrogenerator will be a crucial component of our renewable energy initiative, and I'm excited to find a partner who shares our vision for sustainability.

Here's a brief overview of the specifications:

• 50kW output capacity
• Specific design requirements tailored to our project needs
• Efficiency and reliability are top priorities
• Open to discussing materials and manufacturing processes

If you or someone you know has experience in manufacturing hydrogenerators or similar renewable energy equipment, I'd love to connect and discuss further. Feel free to drop a comment or send me a DM if you're interested or have any recommendations.

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

I havea 63584 Gallon water tank. With a 150 feet of one inch pipe and a 100 feet of head To a generator. how long would I be able to power my little House

Our 3rd Micro hydro install was a Twin Jet pelton turbine for a client in KZN. This unit has the following parameters:

Flow - 25lt/s

Head - 40m

Electrical output - 7kW

The client has a large solar system that this unit will feed into making up for the short fall required to go fully off grid! Nice!

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https://preview.redd.it/7rwpxx8bkyfc1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=50265a7f86a6470561af6ced5f0f964947be319c

https://preview.redd.it/k1gcky8bkyfc1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc54e1f9d82c4c875fb9edbbe945740dbf5e831d

Hi All, this is another hydro turbine of ours! Micro pelton jet turbine... Great little unit!

3kW Pelton turbine unit

Turbine runner and nozzle

Turbine control panel

Turbine site installation

turbine site installation

Turbine testing at our facility

I have an interview for a hydroelectric system technician and I was trying to get some insight on what to expect

does anyone know how I would tie a hydro system to the grid?

Hello my friends. I have been trying to do my research and have a few questions or problems that I could use help with understanding.

I have a creek running through my property. It is steep terrain. If I understand correctly, then I could have a small dammed up pool with say a 6” pipe running down the water down the mountain at a decently steep slope. The top of the pool would be 148’ higher than the bottom. The creek runs pretty steady and I’ll have a pond at the top that can release extra water when needed.

Now with that info, what else do I need to calculate how much Head the pipe would have and therefore, how big of a generator I’d need at the bottom.

If I am completely off and don’t understand how this works then please point me in the right direction lol

Thank you so much in advance!!!

Would it be theoretically possible to make a “water wheel” type contraption connected to an alternator that then stores the energy in batteries to power a car? The water wheel in my sub 2 minute design would be turned by a small diameter high powered jet of water that continues to run until the batteries fill even if the car is turned off. The original power source used to charge the batteries the first time would be done by a hand crank or you could hook the batteries up to a charger if you’re lazy but it would all be done using the power from the water after the initial charge assuming my idea works. Any thoughts on the idea would be appreciated and if anyone has a better community for this question please lmk because I’m genuinely interested!

Off Grid Hydro Charging System

I would like to preface this by stating I am an ABSOLUTE novice, so please speak in simple terms.

I recently purchased this gadget from Amazon. I’m able to produce approximately 25 volts with my breath (I know, it’s meant for water).

I have a reliable source of water near my cabin that flows year round and I’d like to utilize this to charge a 12 volt car battery for supplementary lighting.

From casual research, I’ve observed other similar systems require a dc to dc charge converter, but I have no clue what I should be looking for on this front. I guess it’s used to regulate the voltage due to the variable nature of the power generated?

My rough idea is:

Hydro turbine —-> DC to DC converter —-> Charge controller —> 12V Battery

Any input/advice would be greatly appreciated. Especially regarding the DC converter.

Thanks!

My friend George, who is not on reddit, is an inventor who has developed and patented a more efficient turbine for use in several applications, including hydroelectric power: https://gmcbride.substack.com/

I’m a newbie on hydroelectric plants but thought this might be an interesting discussion for all of you who are well versed on this topic.

I am from Georgia and part of my countrt is occupied by Russia (never heard that before now have ya)

Problem is that half of one of our biggest plants wound up on the occupied territory and we are forced to provide workers, fix and maintain infrastructure while they receive 30% of the generated electricity. The plant was bigger back in the day but whatever it’s left now, part of the tunnel that brings the water to the generators and the generators themselves are on the occupied part connected to a small reservoir. While we are left with a huge dam, two big reservoirs and aqueducts

Link of the map of the entire plant. Put red lines for you to understand the occupation line and sorry for the Georgian script: https://ibb.co/C2XzHPR

Question here is, is it technically possible to reengineer this and have the control tower where the generators are on our territory. The small resevoir on the occupiers side doesnt have a purpose at the moment because it was connected to another tunnel with generators which is out of service after the war. The river enguri itself goes to the black sea and acts as the occupation line/border between the rest of Georgia and the occupied territory. How much of a trouble is my country in with this?

Hi I’m interested in buying or building a cheap hydroelectric generator that are rated at minimum 100watt. What are my options? I want it portable and water flow isnt a problem as I have a giant river where I plan to use it.

Hi I’m interested in buying or building a cheap hydroelectric generator that are rated at minimum 100watt. What are my options? I want it portable and water flow isnt a problem as I have a giant river where I plan to use it.

As work begins on the largest US dam removal project, tribes look to a future of growth

The largest dam removal project in United States history is underway along the California-Oregon border — a process that won't conclude until the end of next year with the help of heavy machinery and explosives.

But in some ways, removing the dams is the easy part. The hard part will come over the next decade as workers, partnering with Native American tribes, plant and monitor nearly 17 billion seeds as they try to restore the Klamath River and the surrounding land to what it looked like before the dams started to go up more than a century ago.

https://candorium.com/news/20230731040907957/as-work-begins-on-the-largest-us-dam-removal-project-tribes-look-to-a-future-of-growth

Trout farmer here. I’m in the process of building an on-farm processing facility and I’m curious about the feasibility of powering some or all of the electricity demand with hydro power from the outflow of the trout farm.

My farm contains two parallel raceways that have flow rates of 500-1200gpm on each side depending on the time of year. This water comes in from a dam across a creek (permits and water rights in place) and gravity flows through the farm and out into a settling pond, then rejoins the creek.

I can fit the outflow weirs with dam boards and run each outflow through a 12” pipe. I’m looking for someone to point me in the right direction in terms of relevant turbines that I should be looking at. From there I can figure out how much electricity I might be able to generate and whether or not that meets or exceeds production requirements.

Many thanks.

Scotland has all the ingredients to implement collossal Pumped-Storage Hydro projects.

It has ample rainfall, an ancient mountain range perfect for dam building and the largest fleet of intermittent wind power in the UK, and very little energy storage to take full advantage of it.

It's also close enough for the wind turbines of Denmark, Northern Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and France to act as a mega-battery for a large part of Northern Europe.

But does the UK government have the vision to approve such a scheme? Would it contribute to another wave of Scottish independence?

More details on our write-up 🔋.

Link: https://www.aquaswitch.co.uk/blog/can-scotland-become-a-mega-battery-for-the-whole-of-europe/

Unlike "traditional" hydro projects, Run-of-the-River hydro is permissive when it comes to the flow of rivers. It passively generates energy 24/7 for as long as the river keeps churning water, and floods a much smaller area than regular hydro-dams.

It can be huge-- harnessing 4GW of power from a copious tributary of the Amazon River, or it can be tiny-- like a 5kW Turbulent hydro harnessing energy from the flow of an irrigation canal.

Link to our write-up: https://www.aquaswitch.co.uk/blog/run-of-the-river/.

Hello all

I am helping a friend build out a small water wheel but the drive belt from the water wheel and the generator aren’t getting along. The drive belt slows down the water wheel considerably almost to a stop. Seeing as this is our first time any advice would be appreciated.

Perhaps we aren’t using the right belt or maybe it’s necessary to add a pulley to the system?