Found a good "Hydroelectric Energy" link? Let Us Know!

A word of warning: These excellent links have a tendency to suddenly disappear or become unavailable. If you see something you can use, SAVE THE PAGE TO YOUR HARD DRIVE! If you don't know how to do this, contact us and we'll tell you how.

Electricity for the Farm ~ Light, Heat & Power by Inexpensive Methods from the Water Wheel or Farm Engine. This book is designed primarily to give the farmer a practical working knowledge of electricity for use as light, heat, and power on the farm. The electric generator, the dynamo, is explained in detail; and there are chapters on electric transmission and house-wiring, by which the farm mechanic is enabled to install his own plant without the
aid and expense of an expert.

Planning of Water and Hydropower Intake Structures

Layman's guide on how to develop a small hydro site [PDF 11.3mb] If you don't look at anything else on this page, DOWNLOAD THIS NOW and save to your hard drive. Contents: Introduction, Fundamentals of Hydraulic Engineering, The water resource and its potential, Site evaluation methodologies, Hydraulic structures, Electromechanical equipment, Environmental impact and its mitigation, Economic Analysis Administrative procedures, Glossary

Water Measurement Manual (3rd. Ed. 1997 - REVISED REPRINTED 2001) - A guide to effective water measurement practices for better water management. This revised manual has three principal purposes. The first is to provide water users and districts guidance in selecting, managing, inspecting, and maintaining their water measurement devices. The second is to describe the standard methods and devices commonly used to measure irrigation water. The third is to acquaint irrigation system operators with a variety of other established but less common methods and with new or special techniques. If you don't want to download the PDF, you can view it on-line at Water Measurement web page [A special "Thanks!" to viewer, Carl R., for finding this info for us.]

Micro Hydro The prime issue of this paper is to show what can be achieved with the development of hydropower at the lower end of the scale (e.g. micro-hydro up to approx. 100 kW), which technology is relatively well developed for this purpose, and how its implementation should make the utmost use of local resources. Emphasis is on the use of currently available know-how, using simple equipment that can be made locally, and the use of local construction materials and techniques. The aim is to reduce capital costs as far as possible. Rather than scaling down large-scale technology, this may lead to a more appropriate upgrading of local technology for larger schemes at a later stage. See also: Water Power & Water Wheels & Water Wheels Overshot & Hydra Ram (Water Power) & Hydro Micro (Water Power) & Hydro Mini (Water Power) & Hydro Power (Water Power) & Banki Water Turbine & River Generator

Renewable Resources Micro Hydroelectric Systems The first step in assessing the feasibility of any hydroelectric system is to determine the amount of power that you can obtain from the stream at the site. The power available at any instant is primarily a product of the flow volume and "head." Flow volume is typically measured in cubic feet per second (cfs) or gallons per minute (gpm). Higher flow means more available power.

Site Evaluation and Design for Micro Hydro Systems (Large download 11.5 MB pdf) This appendix is made up of a number of articles on micro hydro and pertinent charts and tables accumulated over a period of 25 years. Many of the informative articles are reprints from hydro books published in the early part of the last century during the hydro hay days. Most are scanned in their original form. This may give a funky appearance, but the data included is still pertinent and often hard to find.

Micro-Hydro Electric Page: Here are the photos and description of an off grid micro-hydro system that was operated for over a year, providing all of the power requirements for all normal household electric needs. At the time the co-op grid was slightly over a mile away, and showing no interest in running this line, so site produced power was a necessity.

Design Considerations for Your Independent Power System This paper highlights some of the key points to remember when putting together a workable home power system. Using renewable electric sources will reduce, or eliminate, your reliance on fossil fueled generators.

JLAHydro by Jean-Luc Willot to evaluate the flow discharge at a measurement weir using the overflow method, slope calculations for a trapezoidal channel, diameter calculations for a penstock, sizing of transmission cables together with the selection of the optimal turbine from the JLA turbine series (more info here)

pelton sizing spreadsheet by Joseph Hartvigsen (more info Microhydro Discussion Forum Info (Saved)) See also: impulse turbine characteristics by Joseph Hartvigsen (more info here) and PC-hydro, a DOS software package to calculate penstock losses (more info here)

Mother's Microhydroelectric Plant Revisited If you're interested in building a home-scale or larger AC hjydroelectric plant, this account of our successful—experiences may help save you a lot of time and money. See also A Profitable Private Microhydroelectric Plant and Living off the Grid – A New Era in Home-Owner Hydro and  Happy on one kilowatt

Overshot Waterwheel ~ A Design & Construction Manual Almost any flowing water--river, brook, or outlet of a lake or pond - can be put to work and will provide a steady source of energy. Fluctuations in the rate of flow usually are not too large and are spread out over time; water flow is far less subject to quick changes in energy potential and is available 24 hours a day.

Local Experience with Micro-Hydro Technology Small and very small hydropower schemes combine the advantages of large hydro on the one hand an decentralized power supply, as with diesel sets, on the other. They do not have many of the disadvantages, such as costly transmissions and environmental issues in the case of large hydro, and dependence on imported fuel and the need for highly skilled maintenance in the case of diesel plants. Moreover, the harnessing of small hydro-resources, being of a decentralized nature, lends itself to decentralized utilization, local implementation and management, making rural development possible mainly based on self-reliance and the use of natural, local resources

LOW COST DEVELOPMENT OF WATER POWER SITES BY HANS W. HAMM The manual begins by describing in simple language the steps necessary to measure the head (the height of a body of water, considered as causing pressure) and flow of the water supply, and gives data for computing the
amount of power available. Next it describes the construction of a small dam and points out safety precautions necessary in designing and building such structures. Following this is a discussion of turbines and water wheels. Guide lines are given for making the right choice for a particular site.

A Design Manual for Water Wheels with details for applications to pumping water for village use and driving small machinery

HYDRAULIC RAM A hydraulic ram is a pump that uses the power of falling water to force a small portion of the water to a height greater than the source. Water can be forced about as far horizontally as desired, but greater distances require larger pipe, due to friction. No external power is necessary.

UNDERSTANDING MICRO-HYDROELECTRIC GENERATION by Christopher S. Weaver, P.E.: The power of flowing water can be used to generate electricity, or to do other kinds of useful work. Generating electricity in this way is called hydroelectric generation. It can be done anywhere that there is water and a hill or drop for it to run down, such as a drop in an irrigation canal, a place where a river runs through rapids or over a waterfall, or where a dam has backed up water above the level of the river, to name just a few examples. See also: UNDERSTANDING MINI-HYDROELECTRIC
GENERATION

Banki Water Turbine A CONSTRUCTION MANUAL. The Michell or Banki turbine is a relatively easy to build and highly efficient means of harnessing a small stream to provide enough power to generate electricity or drive different types of mechanical devices.

River Generator 1kw ~ The plan presented here is a detailed description of a 1-kilowatt (1-kW) generator unit, which was prepared in 1971. The plan is scheduled to be revised and updated in the near future in order to incorporate additional data. At the time, this plan was prepared, the generator had not been built on the scale shown here.

Small-Scale Hydroelectric Generator Most machines that make electricity need some form of mechanical energy to get things started. Mechanical energy spins the generator to make the electricity. In the case of hydroelectricity, the mechanical energy comes from large volumes of falling water. For more than 100 years, the simplest way to produce the volumes of falling water needed to make electricity has been to build a dam. A dam stops the natural flow of a river, building up a deep reservoir behind it. However, large dams and reservoirs are not always appropriate, especially in the more ecologically sensitive areas of the planet.

Manual for the Humming Bird Electronic Load controller and manual for the 'Swingcat Tidal Turbine’ concept

All About Pumps. This is a sell site for CD software ($60), but contains some good info. I may even buy the CD myself.

Ram Pumps.

Disseminating ram-pump technology by Dr. Terry Thomas, Warwick University, UK. Very nice article, somewhat technical.

Inside a hydro generator Neat cutaway but not too much info.

Micro Hydro Power in the Nineties Paul Cunningham & Barbara Atkinson ©1994 Paul Cunningham and Barbara Atkinson Micro hydro power was once the world's prominent source of mechanical power for manufacturing. Micro hydro is making a comeback for electricity generation in homes. Increasing numbers of small hydro systems are being installed in remote sites in North America. There's also a growing market for micro hydro electricity in developing countries. This article is a technical over-view.

"Energy Systems & Design’s Stream Engine" product test from Home Power Magazine 67, page 68. This is a .pdf file.

"240 VAC Direct-Drive Hydro" from Home Power Magazine 65, page 36. This is a .pdf file.

Downloadable Weir Design Software The WinFlume Home Page WinFlume is a Windows-based computer program used to design and calibrate long-throated flume and broad-crested weir flow measurement structures.

A WATER RESOURCES TECHNICAL PUBLICATION Weir Construction Information. U.S. Department of the Interior. Bureau of Reclamation. An EXCELLENT guide to effective water measurement practices for better water management

Microhydro discussion forum The microhydro discussion forum is an email and web based forum that links over 1500 people world wide with a professional or personal interest in microhydro. The forum enables exchange of information, finding the answer to (technical) questions, announcing of events and making of friends....

Crossflow Turbine Abstracts Unfortunately bulletin #25 is not a "step-by-step" manual, much to the disappointment of many. When I first saw it in 1978, I found it fragmented, elusive, overly technical missing a few formulas. It's more like the technical ramblings of someone explaining the concept of time and the theory of how a clock works when all you wanted was to know the time. However with some diligent "head scratching" over a suitable period of time you will eventually sort out the relevant pieces of information contained in the bulletin.

The Firefly Battery Charging system: The 'Firefly' system is a compact hydropower system primarily designed and built by Dutch researcher Jan Portegjis for lighting purposes in isolated communities with no access to grid electricity. This was first implemented in Ifugao province, Philippines and subsequently taken up by local NGO's.

Hydro Power Design Booklet [PDF] (9MB) Our hydro power booklet presents an overview of each water turbine generator* we offer, with outlines of the operating requirements and power output of each model. It also features an extensive look at the requirements of a hydro power site, with guidelines to help you decide which turbine would work best for your location, and how to adapt your site to install an effective water power system

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