The Genius of Small Hydro Turbines

Several companies are working toward integrating hydroelectric turbines on a smaller scale and with a smaller ecological footprint. Between new designs like Vortex Hydrokinetics’ bladeless turbine and Turbulent’s snail-shaped “fish-friendly” system (say that 10 times fast), there’s plenty of opportunity to take advantage of rivers without having to worry about the safety of ourselves or our scaly friends.

Corrections:
3:28 - We made a mistake between the calculation and the final script. It’s 500,000,000x more than the average faucet.

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[UndecidedMF]

Corrections:
3:28 - We made a mistake between the calculation and the final script. It’s 500, 000, 000x more than the average faucet.

[lindacgrace]

So, basically, anywhere there has been a water-wheel driven mill historically, we can put in a small eco-friendly hydro. Sounds like a great idea to me! I do not believe that we will ever find a "silver bullet" that will solve all of our energy needs with a single system. I think it is much more likely that we will continue to expand our options - rooftop bladeless wind turbines, micro-hydro, more efficient solar panels that are manufactured with fewer rare elements, etc.

[xXProtozoaXx]

I love the idea of small hydro. There are homesteaders and off grid folks who are doing small hydro set ups to compliment solar or wind they have as well. This helps offset days of rainy weather is some areas.

[HiFiGuy]

As an old dad, I appreciate the puns. :)

[NFSHeld]

There is one "problem" with this video: you are naming the advantages of SHP, especially SETUR. But naming the limits of operation without graphing the relations is meaningless. Yes, SETUR-L can produce 43.8 to 65.7 MWh per year, in water depths of 20 meters, with a head of 1 meter, and with flow rates of 2 liters per second. But certainly not all at once. Their manual has a perfectly fine graph that shows at 2 liters per second you'd get more like 750 W, and 5 kW is their rated power at 4 liters per second. Both in a hermetically sealed environment, mind you. Depriving us of such graph is unnecessarily unscientific behavior, more akin to marketing speech than educational tech talks. Please provide us with all the accurate information, not just the highlights.

[johnp]

3:54 T-Boz, Left Eye, n Chilil (TLC) reference for the younger than 35.

[masonjeans]

I did an entire research paper on this. Basically all large hydro projects that are viable have basically been done. A simple diversion small hydro project given proper consideration of down stream flow and now stacking a bunch of them, can be very beneficial for small power needs (maybe small factories and such)

[TwilightMysts]

I came across a vortex turbine years ago and loved the concept. But while I like them better than dams in several ways, I will point out that dams are not just there to generate power. They are a flood control and water storage device as well. Places that were previously unusable because of spring floods or summer droughts are now viable thanks to dams.

[KnugLidi]

Head is the biggest factor in all micro hydro. a 1.5 m head requiring 1.5 m3/s is a HUGE amount of water for micro hydro. But it is usually easier to find 15m head at 0.15 m3/s and get essentially the same power output. Environmental regulations typically forbid working within the water body itself, so you have to divert and return. But the percentage of flow you can divert is quite limited. Far easier to get a small volume. So, the search for sites almost always focuses on small flow, high head.

[CaseyMcBeath]

I own an Eight Sleep. Huge caveat! It’s great, when it works! Go pummel the company to force them to redesign the pod to be fully self contained, electronically. No wi-fi required is necessary for its long term lifespan and reliability

[TheKajunkat]

I remember reading an old article about a small town in the eastern US that wanted to convert a tailrace from an old mill into a small hydro electric generator capable of supplying all the electricity needs of the town. The infrastructure was all mostly in place and the dam had been there about a century so it should have been an easy job. Enter, the government.... It took them about a decade to get through all the red tape, injunctions and studies to basically drop a turbine into an already existing structure. The biggest obstacle of doing anything decentralized is the power of the centralized resisting it.

[customerservice]

I literally spit my empanada out when you made that "chasing waterfalls" joke!!! 🤣🤣🤣 at 3:53

[stevejohnstonbaugh]

Brilliant! This is a YT that gives me hope for the future of planet earth.
This is where governmental spending for clean power generation should be focused globally.
Small, decentralized power production (hydro, solar and wind) located close to the power consumer eliminates most of the inefficiencies found in todays obsolete power transmission systems. I believe these projects should be organized to supply a microgrid CoOp that only connects to the national grid when the CoOp has surplus power to sell and when there is a planned preventative maintenance shutdown. The CoOP should be responsible for metering, collections, establishing rates, maintenance, paying current bills and capital debt service.
BRAVO! For the engineers and manufacturers!

[edburdo]

Just based on this video... i think the small hydro units sounds like a good solution.

The town I used to live in had a river channeled through it (cement/brick lined passage). Putting a couple of these in there would be great during the non-ice season.

[NazariiBardiuk]

I love the puns and would like to see a small counter in the corner with the number of puns intended

[kaitlyn__L]

My dad lives near a similar diversion based small hydro. He says that you wouldn’t even know it was there unless you went off the footpath looking for the awning. Apparently it’s amazingly quiet.

[kelRGo]

That was the best blending of a TLC song into a new article 😂 I’ve heard yet. Nice writing 👍

[jont]

The problem is laws in the US have made small hydro illegal in most places.

[chrisdaniel]

Matt, people in many European countries especially the UK and Germany, are resurrecting old mill sites and previously un-utilized canals for electricity using precision laser cut, welded steel waterwheels. The company HydroWatt in Germany has been leading the way for the last few decades building hundreds of steel and some wood waterwheels to make clean power. HydroWatt has made small wheels and some very large and powerful wheels, the largest is 6 meter(19.69 ft) in diameter, with a 6 meter(19.69 ft) face, with a flow rate of 4, 000 liters/ second(141.26 cu.ft/sec), it has a mechanical power of 107kw and an electrical output of 95kw. The company also manufactures overbuilt rugged all in one gearbox/generator units to handle the massive torque these wheels make to produce green electricity with minimal maintenance. Water wheels have many of the features you discussed in this video, they do no need a dam, a tiny weir and a diversion canal can develop enough head, that being said there are thousands of old mill site in Europe that already have dams making them very attractive for power generation. Waterwheels are fish friendly as they will pass over the wheel uninjured. Waterwheels are ultra low maintenance. Correctly engineered Overshot waterwheels have an efficiency of 90-93% and even in lower flow situations a wheel will produce the maximum electricity based on the amount(weight) of water over the wheel, turbines suffer in this area as below a certain head they will not function or function inefficiently. It would make a fantastic video series if you were to take a trip to Europe to see some of these installations, interview people at HydroWatt and other waterwheel manufactures, featuring numerous sites producing clean energy.

[dpjazzy]

I think the coolest part of this turbine, is the ability to allow larger object through the turbine. It's not going to get hung up on pebble flowing through it. Conventional turbines are very precise and picky.