Run of the River

[Glacier]

[grammafreddy]

One of my all time favourite politicians. Too bad his party turned on him - and on Bill Barlee, too. They cared about the people more than they cared about the party. Miss 'em both.

[ForestfortheTrees]

Glacier - what are your thoughts on Run of the River Projects? I am not a fan and agree with Evans.

And Gramma - I agree with you too :137:

[Nibs]

In a past life I manufactured battery charging units for sailboats. One of the attachments was a 6hp outboard propellor pulled through the water, at about 5kts the unit would develop about 60 watts. Dead simple to scale up, by using a bigger prop, and an alternator, and 200 watts 24/7 is a huge amount of power. Fish will swim around it, it makes minimal impact on the environment, only needs a "brush guard" to protect the prop. no dam or spillway. Power companies do not like it because any one on a decent stream can get lots of power very cheaply.

[hobbyguy]

I have to agree with Corky. We ought not to be selling off these rights.

Seems our "conservative" politicians don't get it. Methinks WAC would have just roasted the current crop, Harper included. Somehow we have lost the business savvy fair enterprise parties, and been left with a bunch of sycophants.

[Glacier]

Glacier - what are your thoughts on Run of the River Projects?

I'm all good with them so long as they aren't in my back yard...

Kidding aside, they aren't as green as their proponents claim. My family is ticked right off about a major run-of-the-river project in a pristine valley. There would be powerlines and penstocks all the way down the valley with run-of-the-river. By contrast, building a dam way down the valley as they tried to do back in the 1980s would have had far less impact in terms of putting man-made infrastructure within the watershed, but there would have been a lake.

One large dam generates more power than a dozen run-of-the-river dams occupying the same valley footprint. But in a narrow valley a new or larger lake could have an even greater impact... but then again, maybe not. It really depends on the location and scope.

Personally, I think we are better served with BC Hydro running the show through large dams over private companies damming and diverting every stream they can get their hands on.

[5VP]

I've been running a small 24V micro hydro system on a stream through my off-grid property for nearly 10 years now. It took 5 years to get all the water rights and approvals in place but it's been worth it. It has greatly reduced the need to run fossil fuel generators. Our fuel costs in the winter have been reduced from $30/day to about $5/day now.

From June till September, combined with solar panels I don't run the generator at all unless I need to use power tools for extended periods.

Under the right circumstances it is clean, enviro friendly, efficient, has had 0 maintenance issues to date and all the water goes almost immediately back into the stream...

[grammafreddy]

Is that one of those in-stream vortex spinners from Sweden, 5VP? We looked at those at one time but didn't have the necessary flow year 'round.

[5VP]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSEwdWEJ ... detailpage

This is exactly what I have except with 2 water inputs instead of only one shown here.

The flow rate can be adjusted for seasonal increases or decreases in water supply by putting different size nozzles at the input.

I also have a separate underground holding tank (1500 gals) for this system.

[Nibs]

Fantastic set up thanks for showing it.

[hobbyguy]

Wandering along the digression to home made power:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozJP3YKOT94

I saw them using one of the old wooden turbines to supply electric lighting to a small village. The one I saw was set up with a simple wooden flume box (no plastic pipe etc.). Each house in the village got one bulb, a big deal for them. So I guess they managed about 2.5 kw. During the day they would screw in an adapter and charge batteries. We are so spoiled!

The new low speed generator technology looks interesting. Pretty low tech in appearance but it does the job.

[5VP]

I saw some very effective and very simple water power set ups when living in the Kootenays.

It's amazing how well people can get by with a 12V power system.