Small-scale affordable hydro power
Turbulent, a Belgian company has developed a low cost micro hydro power plant that just might be to solution for bringing clean, sustainable energy to areas remote areas with no access to a traditional power grid.
Imagine you could use any kind of small head difference in a river or canal. The power those drops contain might surprise you. They have created a technology that can make use of all these small waterfalls or rapids in a way that’s safe for the environment. Gone are the days that communities had to choose between having power or fish to eat. The robust and fish friendly vortex turbines generate energy 24/7 at an incredibly low cost. Instead of focusing on large-scale dams and other massive infrastructure projects to solve energy access problems, Turbulent has decided to go small and deliver a large impact. Their simple, vortex-based power generation provides from 15–100 kW and requires relatively little head (at least a 1.5 m drop) and flow (anything over 1,000 l/s). They have created a great solution for small villages. A single turbine can power up to 35 houses. The operation of the turbine is quite simple. It has only one moving part, the Kaplan turbine used to capture the water’s energy requires very little maintenance and is fish-friendly.
The individual units can be combined along a waterway to create a distributed turbine system. Essentially creating one big virtual hydro power power plant. These virtual hydro power plants can be as large as 10MW in power output. That’s the power production of a small city! The our civil structures are designed to be easy to install, and the electronics and robust power take-offs are designed to keep working with minimal maintenance. Learn more at Turbulent’s website
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