Alternative Solutions for Small Hydropower Plants

Alternative Solutions for Small Hydropower Plants

Obtaining energy from renewable resources is a worldwide trend in the age of increasing energy demand. Hydropower has some potential in this field, especially for low-power locations. However, construction of such facilities requires high expenses, which is why some attempts at lowering the costs ha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energies (Basel) Vol. 15; no. 4; p. 1275
Main Authors: Liszka, Damian, Krzemianowski, Zbigniew, Węgiel, Tomasz, Borkowski, Dariusz, Polniak, Andrzej, Wawrzykowski, Konrad, Cebula, Artur
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-02-2022
Subjects:
Concrete
Converters
Design
Electric power
Electric power grids
Electricity distribution
Energy demand
Hydraulics
Hydroelectric plants
Hydroelectric power
Mechanical systems
permanent magnet generator
Permanent magnets
Prefabrication
Renewable resources
semi-Kaplan turbine
small hydropower plants
Sustainable yield
Turbines
Turbulence
variable speed generation
Poland
Austria
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Summary:Obtaining energy from renewable resources is a worldwide trend in the age of increasing energy demand. Hydropower has some potential in this field, especially for low-power locations. However, construction of such facilities requires high expenses, which is why some attempts at lowering the costs have been made, i.e., by proposing alternative solutions to the classic ones. This paper proposes a selection of options for small hydropower plants (SHP) that lower the investment costs while keeping up profitable operations. The proposed solutions concern simplifying the turbine’s and generator’s integration by installing them in dedicated prefabricated concrete modules. A rare but simple and cheap semi-Kaplan type of turbine with a non-classical spiral inflow is proposed. The turbine operates a permanent magnet (PM)-excited generator, converting the energy at a variable rotational speed. Thanks to this approach, it is possible to simplify the regulation system and eliminate expensive mechanical transmission. However, on the power grid side, a power electronic converter (PEC) must be coupled with the generator. The advantage of this solution compared to the classical ones is that the reliability of power electronics is much higher than that of mechanical systems. This paper presents modeling research on semi-Kaplan turbines’ series development, and a dedicated PM generator is presented as an example of a complete hydro unit with 50 kW power.
ISSN:1996-1073
1996-1073
DOI:10.3390/en15041275