The Genius of Small Hydro Turbines
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- Опубликовано: 11 мар 2024
- The Genius of Bladeless Vortex Hydropower. Click here www.eightsleep.com/mattferrell to improve your sleep fitness with Eight Sleep and use my code MATT to get $200 off! Hydropower is a great source of energy that doesn’t suffer the same intermittency problems as other renewables. But dams fail. A lot. About 95% of the existing hydropower systems in the States were built before 1995, and over half operate using equipment designed over 80 years ago. This aging infrastructure can be not only unreliable, but dangerous to local populations, human and animal alike. That said, hydropower doesn’t always have to be postcard-perfect or 67 stories high. It actually has a lot of room for growth…possibly by shrinking. That’s because small hydropower (or SHP) has the potential to literally usher in a new generation.
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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Corrections:
3:28 - We made a mistake between the calculation and the final script. It’s 500,000,000x more than the average faucet.
"Das Genie der blattlosen Vortex-Wasserkraft. Klicken Sie hier, um Ihre Schlaffitness mit Eight Sleep zu verbessern und verwenden Sie meinen Code MATT, um 200 $ Rabatt zu erhalten! "
what does that mean? can you explain it? it's from your video description.
Hey Matt, great video as always! The chart at 08:03 is kind of misleading in combination with what you say. It shows total energy consumption of countries rather than the average per person while you're saying at that moment that those in the US tend to use a lot more electricity than people in other parts of the world. Now it seems as if the average Chinese citizen uses more than a US citizen but that's not true
The Patent Rights to Vortex hydropower is owned by someone in Australia.
There are a few prototypes and small scale Units operating in Australia and around the world.
@@firstlast2621The US barely makes up 4% of the global population yet consumes 1/3 of the world's resources and emits almost 30% of the world's pollution and waste.
Would you please do an episode about the Bath County Va pumped hydro installation… it’s been quietly working away for some time now …
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.
regular wind turbines work well, but yeah, everything can be better ofc. i've watched plenty of washing machine hydro power videos here on youtube, it's really easy to build one yourself IF you have access to flowing water on your property (which most people sadly won't have).
@@moos5221 True. More applicable to east of the Mississippi rather than the semi-arid and arid west.
@@moos5221 It's not that easy. The flowing water must have a certain height level or power level to produce substantial energy.
Not really even limited to that, you can chain these things together, in theory you have mile after mile of them along the same river one for every X meters of drop. Unlike wind and solar the reliability of these systems makes them actually useful at a grid scale.
@gravitaslost Water doesn't work that way, dude. But okay lol.
As an old dad, I appreciate the puns. :)
The dry delivery does it for me
Smoothly slipped in TLC - "Don't go chasing waterfalls" lyrics😂
Ya, he is winning at word play
@@AnakiteMedia Stick to the rivers and lakes that you're used to
@@elfshadowx I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all
But I think you're moving too fast
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.
Great call. I hadn't read your comment.
I visited a small hydro project in BC, and the guide said they had just done a 50,000,000 upgrade, and now it can suply 1,000 homes with free electricity. So I tried to explain to him that at 1 percent interest, that is $500.00 per home with no upkeep or debt repayment! We can not afford hydro!
Use the hydro as storage by pumping spare during times of high solar generation.
Mini pumped hydro storage.
@@terenceiutzi4003 50mil isn't what I'd call small. Typically, hydro power is the cheapest form of power generation available including fossil fuels, and has been for a hundred years. Solar generation may technically be cheaper nowadays but if you include all costs including storage, transmission, and uptime, big hydro is still cheaper. Not sure about the small scale though, seems costs vary hugely.
my dad was telling me a group of people that owned cottages near a place that had running water got approval after submitting a plan to build a micro dam to power their places and sell the excess back to the power grid when not in use. i live in BC Canada, and our government was talking about the future of micro dams instead of colossal dam sites until Site C project dam was built
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)
I literally spit my empanada out when you made that "chasing waterfalls" joke!!! 🤣🤣🤣 at 3:53
The whole episode script was on point. Inspired work.
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.
That purpose is better served by a series of smaller connected water bodies
True however if California increased the organic Carbon content of their agricultural lands they would be able to hold on to the water that falls on those lands, produce higher quality food with little or no inputs and have a water surplus. That increase in soil carbon would take a small change in management. Increasing soil carbon has been demonstrated to be possible with some agricultural producers increasing soil carbon content by over one percent a year. 4 years to being free from the need to siphon water. By products More and better-quality food with a lower cost to the producer. I could list all the benefits, but this is a comment on RUclips.
But muh environment and snails
3:54 T-Boz, Left Eye, n Chilil (TLC) reference for the younger than 35.
me: did he just do that? yup, confirmed
I'm under 35 and caught it immediately. In fact, I suspected I would hear that line in this video
Left Eye died 22 years ago. I feel so old.
He tossed that in w/o cracking a smile. I would have had the see what I did there look on my face.
Yup he just slipped that in there 😂
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.
Definitely the biggest hurdle Turbulent has had.
You mean just stop regulating and it will magically work. Ask Boeing hows thay working out?
Regulations are there for a reason, especially when it’s related to a possibly catastrophic endeavor.
If there were no regulations and the dam failed, they'd be running to the gov't with their hands out, complaining about how long it takes to get their disaster relief.
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
Also, a hefty subscription fee is now required to access critical features. And you must subscribe when completing the purchase as well, so the listed price is a bait-and-switch. I don't trust companies that behave like this.
Thank you I was going to look into it but I don't have home internet nor do I want them tracking through my phone
Plus it comes with all the downsides of a water bed worrying about punctures. Also it's like 2200$ + subscription, did not know about the wifi issues tho, seemed to good to be true anyways
I bought their original mattress topper on indiegogo. The sleep data told me that I never had a good night's sleep on it (seriously... I never scored above the mid 80s). Also, as a single person... the lack of the app to handle just one person instead of two is... confusing. I sent them a complaint about this shortly after getting my crowdfunded topper. They refunded the whole thing for me in response. It did mostly work well as a bed warmer afterwards.
Pretty sure that isn't fixed... over ten years later.
If it was a good product, they wouldn't need YT shills to sell it.
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.
I love the puns and would like to see a small counter in the corner with the number of puns intended
One pun in ten did.
Like the cinemas sins counter *ding*
Nah, some of the puns contain references to e.g. 90s songs, and I kind of enjoy just spotting the ones I do spot and not spotting the ones I don't :D
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.
Use small Hydro to charge a large battery
That was the best blending of a TLC song into a new article 😂 I’ve heard yet. Nice writing 👍
The problem is laws in the US have made small hydro illegal in most places.
No that's not the problem. Those laws are in place to prevent massive damage caused by 'most' types of hydro in the form of dams and impellers. With traditional dams that water being retained can cause significant flow changes downstream when a lot of upstream tributaries start each building their own dam. There is a need to coordinate how these systems work together for retention and flow and 99% of people who want to make use of small hydro also don't want to corporate with a central authority. Us Americans have a lot of good things going for us, but working with our neighbors usually isn't one of them.
@@genxtech5584 Can honestly just boil that whole last bit down to "playing nice with others" sadly...
@@genxtech5584This thinking is predicated on the idea of an infallible “central authority” with immutable policy / philosophy which ignores new evidence, methodology and prevailing thought. The Army Corps of Engineers should be the only example needed to poke a hole in your assertion.
Central authority, government and laws are written by people. Well meaning educated people can be and are often wrong.
@@utooboobnoob LOL not at all. Immutable policy is insane. Working together with a central authority is not. I'm not arguing the policies shouldn't change. I'm saying they're in place because people only care about themselves and critically fail to think ahead. I'm not faulting us it's how we've survived to be what we are today. Your point is exactly the problem with the current system. They write policies once then expect them to stay relevant forever.
@@genxtech5584 I agree that "immutable policy is insane". Have you ever had the pleasure of dealing with county, state and federal agencies? I have. Some of their policies outright contradict each other. The decision makers at various levels adhere to the letter of the law / code until it no longer suits them or their agency's latest mandate.
I owned a piece of property with some wetlands on it. State and federal regulations made it prohibitively expensive to develop. There was also talk of potential endangered reptiles on the parcel. It was going to be onerous to develop; I tried for a few years. But then the mayor and county board stepped in. To placate their constituents, they needed to build affordable housing. My once difficult and environmentally endangered property looked great. Turns out all the state really wanted were mitigation fees to let the project commence. All of a sudden the state's environmental agency started referring to my wetlands as "junk wetlands". The talk of possible endangered reptiles ceased. Army Corps, took 11x longer, but eventually rubber stamped the project. I made out like a bandit. All's well that ends well, right?
The argument could be made that these regulations and department ethos were put aside for the greater good. But in all honesty, a development half a mile down the road would have accomplished the same goal, destroyed far less "sensitive" land and been built much quicker.
I think semantics is really important on this, Matt. It's not that the technologies are unreliable because they're old, it's because they weren't designed to work this long.
Really happy you touched on this again. I think about small hydro from time to time.
I think one of the other valuable considerations with solar and smaller footprint options for hydro and wind can help decentralize the grid. We have been pushing towards greater centralization of the grid for 15+ years now and it is the wrong direction. Decentralization means that we do not need to have nearly as much long-haul transfer of power which leads to losses. It also means that existing plants do not need to scale.
I think both directions are worth pursuing and, in fact, must be pursued.
We'd like to generate energy from a bunch of locations, distribute it as-necessary, and store the excess--all as efficiently as possible. Even if every roof and window generated energy, I expect that urban areas will still need centralized energy generation and storage for both efficiency and cost reasons. So, I think it's important to develop technology for centralized grids that allow many different energy generation and storage methods to 'play well together'--an effort I mostly hear in the context of centralized 'smart grids.'
TL;DR: I believe that, like the many different types of renewable energy generation, the best solution uses many different scales of each technology as appropriate.
@@Erik-pu4mjexactly. Continent wide interconnected smart microgrids is the answer
Its the standard march of businesses. The industry starts out decentralized and as the most competitive producers gain a competitive advantages and economies of scale increase, they push out or buy the other competitors. This trend will continue until they are so large that they cannot fulfill the function they were started on or the business environment changes. Large organizations are not as nimble as smaller ones and change can be too slow to adapt. Collapse follows and the industry begins to decentralize. It is a very common phenomenon in Nature. During the collapse other entities that have a small competitive advantage due to the rate at which they can adapt move in to take advantage of the Niche.
Loved the word play - particularly, “no need to go chasing waterfalls!”
The timing of this is amazing, i have been looking into hydro to develop a project in one of the locations i oversee, this is brilliant. Thanks Matt
The SETUR reminds me of a cone crusher, I was immediately thinking there's no way fish are surviving going through that, then Matt got to talking about the screens for fish and debris protection.
That first genius one with the ball, the setur, looks like an incredible fish squishier.
It does seem like a cousin to a gyratory rock crusher.
its not a squisher, its a massager
Something seems off with the numbers on the Brazilian dam. If 62.200 m^3/s is 500.000 times the faucet then the faucet would spew out about 0,1 m^3/s which is still 100l/s. You have some mighty faucets in the US.
I was thinking the same thing.
Agreed. Keeping things in US terms, 985,890,099 gallons/min for the dam divided by 500,000 would be 1,972 gallons/min for a facuet. That's pretty spot on 1000x what it really is. Looks like someone slipped 3 decimal places somewhere in there.
@@jtleinbach probably when they did m3 to liter part of the m3 to gallon conversion
Sorry about that! We transposed a decimal. It’s 500,000,000x more than the average faucet. I’ve added a correction to video description.
Transposed 3 decimals. The problem isn't that you made a mathematical error, the problem is that it is so obvious and yet it wasn't picked up - so how can I trust anything else that you have said?
Yaaaay!!!!! 😀
Thank you, Matt, for doing a small hydro video! I've been waiting for this for years! ❤
It's worthless
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.
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.
Think the goal of the video was to get the concept in front of people that may not know about it, rather than be a comprehensive argument in favor of them.
@@DarkRider1768Yes, but his data is most likely coming from that manual anyway, and the graph is plotted directly underneath. And as it is right there, might as well just show it while talking about the numbers, instead of rolling the same few promo footage clips for the third time. It is small things like these that feel like an unforced error in an otherwise quite scientifically accurate video. You know what I mean? It's like "Perfect score if it wasn't for that small, easily avoidable thing, that appears factually wrong now."
This isn't a science channel lol. You can't expect that kind of quality from this guy. It is a marketing channel, hence, his name; Undecided.
I’m glad this video got the TLC it deserved.
The quality of the videos you produce is always amazing. Thanks for this introduction to small hydro... now I want a Turbulent turbine! :D
I'm convinced that Matt writes the puns first, then comes up with the content to fit.
Dam thats good 👍 small compact rubber coated blades great idea, my late father had a cottage with land & a lake, I think how much power 🔋 could have been generated at the outlet of that lake, Hydroelectric Wind & enough room for solar, But in the middle of the countryside not many jobs, so we eventually moved, certainly that place had a lot of potential 👍 I need another one like it as I'm retired now !
Every time I see one of those Turbulant promotional videos I’m struck by how much of the potential energy of those installations is being wasted by all the turbulence in their water flow.
not as much wasted energy as not having anything there collecting some of the energy....
Great job Matt. Been following you for years and you never disappoint.
Thanks for the video Matt!
Awesome TLC reference 😂
What's better about saying "SHP" than "small hydro"? Initialisms and acronyms...
It's cool, obviously you are not.
@@julianshepherd2038 Obviously. I'd like to be more like you
@@AquilaSornoAranion try harder please
@@moos5221 Just so I can also tell others who are not cool, what do you cool people think is so good about speaking in initialisms?
He probably wrote the script and when you write you often don't count syllables.
Hey Matt, great video! Yeah I think this would be a real boon for farms and small communities. Micro grids. For countries and cities it seems like big hydro makes good sense. I live in Ontario, Canada and we went big on Nuclear while our neighbouring provinces like Manitoba, Quebec and Newfoundland went big on Hydro. Both systems do work but Hydro seems to be the cheaper option in the long run. We have so many unpowered existing dams and I think that those dams are the lowest hanging fruit in terms of adding more power sources to our grid. Then we still do have loads of potential hydro dam locations that we could add in here as well. I'd say that on balance large scale hydro is the way to go when possible and adding fish spawning ladders is the thing to do with dams going forward
I think these are a great idea, I'm a fan of hydro, it's how my power is produced. I could see a smaller system like that snail one would be so good around riverways, and very environmentally friendly so I'm all for them.
Dam, I enjoy the constant family friendly swearing in this video.
No dam! That's the point of small turbines 😉
@@jurgennicht4626 So you don't give a dam.
The town I live in has a real problem with having the street sign for Dam Road stolen. They keep replacing it with better and stronger mountings, though. It's a dead end road that leads past the "Glory Hole" (the overflow drain in the shape of a morning glory) to the base of the Harriman Dam. Getting the pun engine going.
@@mikep3226 Dam Road to Glory Hole? If I'd put it on a map for a roleplaying game, the players wouldn't have believed it 😆
Imagine undoing the damage Dams made with these devices. Just a parallel series of small hydro where you need it.
But you can't parallel enough of them to make something like the output of Hoover Dam. They would be supplemental power not base power.
The dam creates the reservoir (reserve of water) to ensure 100% uptime. If you go without a reservoir (called a run of river setup) then your uptime shrinks making your output far,far less. You cannot replace hydroelectric dams with these devices. Small or micro hydro is all about utilizing the high head/small flow or low head/large flow opportunities that exist.
You're delusional if you think hydro dams can be replaced with this garbage.
Big dams are too valuable for grid in places that has option to have them. I live 40 km from 40 meter 850MW hydro dam (there are 2 more downstream main river with 12m/300MW and 18m/450 MW power ) and just from water flow rate in river I can tell price for power at moment (dry summer like 400, peak snow melt over 4000 some years, average around 650 m2/s). And they do work all year round no matter ice conditions (meter of ice over deep water storage doesn't matter that much vs meter over small one - might still work but with risk).
Same time - for off-grid/remote areas in warmer climate they look decent option for sure.
If only... But hey, at least they can help prevent further ecological damage! And better a supplemental power source than none.
I appreciate your commitment to the pun.
Also, a small scale hydro system like this is my ideal choice for off grid energy. The turbulent flow design is my favorite, though probably overkill for a single family home - maybe ideal for a small community.
You are awesome Brother
God bless you and your family
A small tributary of the river Thames close to where I had 34 watermills recorded in the early 19th century on a nine mile stretch.
The lower River Lea was tidal up to Hackney Wick [today's 2012 Olympic Park] so tide mills operated at least as far as Three Mills just up from Bow. Not sure whether the tide could be usefully used higher than that. Today the tide is stopped where the Lea joins the Thames and essentially all the Lea catchment's water is used to supply London.
@@peteglass3496 Salt water brings a whole load of problems of its own, principally corrosion. But there are plenty of locks further up onto the Regent's Canal. Perhaps turbines like this could be integrated into the locks, they have a perfect hydrostatic head, like the weirs and locks all along the Thames.
Thanks for keeping us up to date with current information.
You dropping those TLC lines at 4:00 cracked me up.
Matt, nice video. I'd like to comment on your channel, overall: I appreciate that you do not act condescending towards people who have higher levels of skepticism toward "clean" power technologies. Your demeanor and offering more balanced analysis helps make the info more accessible and compelling rather than the sometimes smug or even confrontational approaches I've seen on a few other channels. Thank you.
Appreciate it. I try to be as inclusive as I can in the approach.
Wow, just wow on the TLC Reference... thanks for that
I do think the small hydro power plants like these two would be good for rural areas, and maybe in cities as well if you think about ones like LA, where the LA river maybe a good place depending on the drop/head of the river for areas that solar, and wind can't cover, or it is cost prohibited to install them.
LA produces one billion gallons of wastewater a day, every single day. Need I say more.
I can not believe you made an entire video on dams without mentioning Chinas Three Gorges dam and how its sheer size changed earths rotation,
Hows that for consequences of going big.
Love your videos, Gr. Mezz
that is a myth
@@frankkroondijk586 “In 2005, NASA scientists calculated that the shift of water mass stored by the dams would increase the total length of the Earth's day by 0.06 microseconds and make the Earth slightly more round in the middle and flat on the poles.”
-NASA Details Earthquake Effects on the Earth
Jan. 10, 2005
@@frankkroondijk586 Doesn't appear to be a myth; the effect is just tiny.
Quick Wikipedia search: "In 2005, NASA scientists calculated that the shift of water mass stored by the dams would increase the total length of the Earth's day by 0.06 microseconds and make the Earth slightly more round in the middle and flat on the poles." NASA used this as an example to compare the "barely noticeable" effect that all earthquakes have on Earth's rotation.
Learnt a lot new!! Thank you for this video!
I don't know how you can drop SO many puns, jokes and song lyrics with a straight face. Matt, you are The Best !!!
Seems a better filter is needed. Hoover Dam has huge filterproblems.
As a small team that doing a university project on how to get to the point of %100 percent renewable energy usage on solomon islands, i find these turbines really useful ! I think i might add them to our project to generate power on small islands that has rivers
Combine solar with a reservoir for a water turbine - pump water uphill during daylight, get electricity at night from the turbine
"It's as tall as six christs stacked on top of one another ..." Man, Americans will use literally anything but the matric system!
Hmm so a standard faucet can now flow 1971 gallons per minute.
985,890,099 gallons per minute / 500,000 standard faucets = 1971 gallons per minute. Looks like you are off by 3 orders of magnitude. Hopefully your other facts aren't off that far.
Yep, we messed things up after we did the calculation. It ended up getting written incorrectly in the script as the word million instead of billion ... and we didn't catch it. 🤦 I've added a correction to the description & comments.
Sirji thanks for your knowledge sharing
Thanks, I live in the UK on the site of a former water powered flour mill, the stream is still there, but culverted under my garden, I would love to re use the water power, but it is just too complicated and beaurocratic to consider.
Water power beats wind power every time, but wind is everywhere and water is not.
your recent videas offer a multitude of languages, which is great.
but your videos want to always play back in german (live in a german speaking region), which is annoying. i have all my language setting on english but it still wants to force me to the german dub. does anyone know a solution, other than having to change it every time i watch a video? (i already tried to change my location, it does not help)
RUclips is automatically dubbing the audio into other languages? That's super sophisticated but incredibly annoying and silly if they don't let the user control which version they get. I hope you find a solution. There might be a Chrome extension that can help?
@@jonevansauthori don't use chrome :/ but i might look into extensions.
Yt does have issues with langiuages for a long time. it also activates subtitles randomly.
my region speaks german and i speak fluently german and english and i don't need subtitles or dubbing. but thats impossible to do in the settings
:/
It also randomly translates titles for a long time, leading one to click on seemingly German videos just to get something one doesn’t understand.
(Leaving this comment just to hopefully get notified if someone answers with a solution to this problem I also face…)
R.I.P. Aaliyah.
I really loved this video! I live on along the Mississippi river with the only damn that produces hydro power and I think they could use this to turn the locks into power producers where they head wasn't strong enough for big hydro.
Ty for covering hydro power. I mentioned it to you awhile back as did couple other thousand.
EVERYTHING should now be measured in Christs.
As a machinist, I feel I would get more use out of the millichrist.
Hear hear 🎉
Thanks for the multi language subtitles, Matt!!!
I really like the idea of diversifying energy sources and making it on a smaller scale then dams. It also has the benefit of needing a lot less infrastructure to transsport the energy, since you would be living basically next to it. That seems a lot more efficient than placing high-voltage pylons from one big dam throughout the rainforest...
Combined with stored hydro, this technology opens out options for more arid areas like Australia. Great video.
I think small hydro is a great niche solution for rural/remote areas with a steady water source. I live in the Ozarks, where there are many streams where it would assist in energy supply.
We got a small hydro installation where I am just outside a local university, visible from a bridge going in to the town center region. It looks nice.
I've always been saying for the longest time that these things could be dotted all over the place, even across the same river a few times (although you also have to consider the density of the land, slowly the river down could result in more water absorption, so ideally you'd do that higher up the river, and maybe even consider lining the ground to avoid some of that extra absorption)
It boggled the mind why it wasn't a thing when we had been using waterwheels for so long.
The same could even be done with wind to capture some of the lesser wind currents that are more present in every day life, just as an extra boost to the power grid. Yanking some of that extra wind energy out of the air could also make things a little more tolerable in the weather department, not to dissimilar to how trees function. Wind, however, is a little more complicated, but still very doable. As long as you prevent the thing from being ravaged by overloading from heavy wind currents, you'll be fine.
Great video Matt ! Been thinking of micro hydro for a while.. hope to find a spot with a small stream..
Excellent presentation, Thanks
Thanks for highlighting the advantages of small-scale hydro energy - I've been watching this tech for a few years now. There's one place water will ALWAYS flow - inside high flow water pipes... conduit hydro.
Every community or region should be doing a geo-physical asset analysis and applying whatever renewable energy tech that makes the most sense. If each community / region / state does this, grid resilience will be achieved - hopefully cost effectively too.
It's estimated that around 80% of people will live in cities by 2050'ish so it makes sense that solutions to socio- economic challenges must come from cities (such as food & water security, affordable housing, energy, waste management, various mobility options, awa social services & support etc).
In many parts of the world this means putting solar panels EVERYWHERE (on every rooftop, shading every street & car park, awa lining highways) supported by community energy storage. Other options might include mini & micro hydro, conduit hydro, on & offshore wind, geothermal, on shore wave power for coastal communities etc.
Thanks, Matt. This is great news.
my suggestion is a closed loop system using a small reservoir with a larger reservoir underneath it with a pump moving water or Antifreeze to top and also using a radiator system to dissipate heat build up. just something rattling around in my head. I used the Turbulent system for reference to configure a shipping container layout with side vents for radiator placement and side air flow
Loved the way you wove the TLC Waterfalls words into the video. Well done
Nice view of the Edenville Michigan Dam that washed out
Interesting Vid. Would be interesting to dive deeper into the different turbine technologies, categorize the turbine types, quantify the existing market-shares, and elaborate on problems with conventional turbines. Then you can link what the different issues are, and what these companies do to address each
Watching some hydro turbines just remind me how an old washing machine (with the right stator) can be turned into a turbine a used for smaller off-grid applications (good way to recycle too) and you can also use the same stators for wind turbines if your keen.
Think we are progressing in the right way as we need multiple factors to survive
Theoretically for a diversion type hydroelectric plant, they could install flow controls across a portion of the river's width to help regulate power supply without impacting wildlife that much. They wouldn't be changing the flow rate of the river, just what fraction of it flows through the plant, ideally setting aside a certain fraction that it cannot take, thereby preventing it from actually stopping fish migration.
13:08 it took them less than a day to install the turbine... on an already built enclousure . Always add up every part of a project, for clear understanding.
Love this tech, especially the part were it can become its own grid without having to be near a mayor established electrical grid, that I think is its biggest pro
The designs mentioned remind me of the Romanian 100+ year old valtoare/vâltori (whirlpool), which is a water-powered washing machine.
For it, water is channeled into a large wooden funnel-like barrel. The funnel has gaps wide enough for water to flow out, but not wide enough for the cloth to slip through. The force and angle of the water hitting the wood creates a spiral of water, which tumbles the clothes thrown inside.
Just some random info for everyone.
I'd be fascinated with how some of these could be fitted in with old infrastructure. In this instance I'm talking canals - Yes during summer they're likely to have issues but for the other 50 weeks of the year they'd be fine in the UK - especially where there's plenty of locks with bypasses. Loads of spots for small hydropower to be introduced.
1:02 Oh Matt "Why should we give a DAM" 😅
It just happens to be that we have a running well in our property where water flows all year around and just to days ago I installed a little water Turbine there. It might not be much but a couple of kilowatt hours per day good make a difference
If you put a farm dam on a hillside valley that is not a permanent stream, you're not going to affect fish movement at all. Run a micro-hydro between your dam and whatever permanent stream that hillside drains into, and you can have your hydro and let the fish swim in it too.
Small farm dams are much easier to get right than big hydro river dams. You just need enough catchment and enough storage to get through a typical dry spell for that area, possibly backed up by rooftop solar for abnormally long droughts.
One of my dreams is to own a piece of mountainous property with running water attached, and this is part of why. I've wanted this for as long as I can remember, like maybe 40 years, because I knew about sawmills, grain mills, etc.
Loved the use of "don't go chasing waterfalls" lyrics :D
i've seen turbulent power plants in person they have worked years without any issues and provide a stable source of power for many people.too bad some places have banned making your own power
In 1902 were in Bohemia in middle Europe at least 8000 water mills. There is huge potential to rebuild them again this way. Thank you for this video 👍
Several good examples of these small hydro systems from over 100 years ago can be found in the coastal California mountains and Sierra Nevada Range foothills. I have always believed they were a fantastic application for generating small-scale, local electric power.
I really love the Turbulent vortex generators. They look like they would be a great option for rural communities and third world countries that would benefit from smaller, more resilient infrastructure
Ohhhh nicely done... 3:53 TLC "Don't go chasing..." - how could I not hit like after that delivery? =D
When you said 'water height is, well, fluid', that immediately made me think about ocean beaches and waves. If you were to compare the height of a cresting wave to a beach, most of the time, the wave is higher. Sometimes you get big waves... so... what if you built a structure on an unusable beach where the height of the collection is based on the average yearly height of the waves and then pipe the exhaust water to the beach to be released back into the ocean. So, you've got 2 meter waves (roughly 6'), you set up the collection at 5'. You'll collect water at the top of the wave, have it go through the system, and then pipe back to the beach where the water is lower. Forever renewable so long as there are waves in the ocean.
When I lived in Connecticut, there were lots of old mills that ran off some form of old hydro to power for the old linen mills, but most have been converted to apartments. I always thought it would be an excellent opportunity for these facilities to have back-up power in the case of a snow storm or such, but he whole ice issue is a fear. I think in many niche opportunities it offers some capability that just wasn't noticed before.
well done on this. Myself and 4 neighbors are off grid and this tech is interesting as an alternative to solar. Solar it self is nice and low maintenance, it's the storage that is an issue. It would be nice to utilize our small creek for consistent power.
I'd be tempted to combine a local solar panel set, wind generator and one of these micro-turbines. Add a small battery bank and it could become very reliable for remote suitable sites.
Great video.
Oh hey, I've seen Turbulent before! The real advantage of their design/system is that it's extremely low maintenance. They had an install in Latin America iirc that had only been cleaned with a brush a couple times in 8 years, when the water goes low. I bet it's still going strong.
I've know about small hydro for years, but never knew they could be this efficient. I was walking in the Sierra Nevadas in Spain a decade ago, and many of the old Islamic-era acequia irrigation channels are still channeling a lot of water for many kilometers while slowing winding down the slopes. They pass a lot of cottages, some still use, and I was wondering while some sort of micro hydro, enough to power at least a house wasn't being installed, even in the long stretches between cottages.
It's the same as battery tech - you want some of them in your house, another in your phone, and different for cars and plains. Great video as always.
way back when, lots of towns had small water-powered generating systems. they didn't produce all that much electricity, but there wasn't all that much demand (a typical house might have a radio and less than 10 light bulbs).
I sold micro hydro overshot pelton wheels in Alaska. 1981 to 1982, this system works especially when combined with other alt. Energy generators such as solar or the genset ÷ system. Independent power is achievable.
Lol, I was not expecting to see the dam of Vilarinho das Furnas in Portugal (2:08) in one of your videos. The entire region is lovely, 10/10 would have vacations there again.
I have had my eye on small hydro for a while now. I really think that it can be huge filling in many renewable gaps, especially that blades one.