Run-of-River Hydrokinetics
It’s sad to see that run-of-river hydro hasn’t taken off, since it’s such an elegant way to extract the kinetic energy from moving water; such an approach has very little impact to aquatic life, and raises few other environmental concerns.
Linked above is a good video that presents the basic concept, i.e., diverting water away from the main stream, running it through a turbine, and then returning it into the river. The video introduces a “whirlpool” concept that may sound as if it could improve the overall efficiency of the system, though actually wouldn’t, as it’s really no different than conventional RoR .
I’m sure the ultimate purpose of the video is to hit up clean energy investors, though I urge caution. Of course, the promoters claim extremely low maintenance costs, and that’s legitimate, but until we get a great number of these built and operational, it will be hard to know too much about the LCOE (levelized cost of energy) they produce. My fear is that the overall cost of tying lots of small plants to the grid, or even a microgrid will be prohibitive, though perhaps this could work for a microgrid that is perfectly situated.
Craig,
You are correct, the cost of installation, maintenance etc is fairly prohibitive. Even the cheapest, (and there’s a profusion of designs) doesn’t make economic sense.
I have installed three micro turbines in different locations over the years to provide power for electric pumps, lighting, water filtration, aquifers, pumped storage etc.
Each installation was a fascinating engineering challenge and absorbing infrastructure planning, but not really economically justifiable.
I think this forum once had an expert in micro-turbines, Lawrence Coomber,(?) who used to explain about larger scale mini-turbines he installed in developing nations. If he still reads these pages, his knowledgeable contribution would be a useful addition .
Harnessing the energy from rivers is very old technology and both the history and engineering can become addictive ! 🙂 There’s always some ‘improvement’ to be made or something to tinker with,great fun! I love these projects ! However, the viability as a commercial venture is very dubious.