MicroHydro Plant...

Thread Starter

mwalden824

Joined Mar 6, 2011
51
This guy builds a mini hydro plant on his land where a stream flows through to power his house. I think he lives in Chile.

I wish I lived near some moving body of water. This is pretty cool. Not sure how legal this would be here though? I am sure there are laws against diverting water.

Here's the link...
http://ludens.cl/paradise/turbine/turbine.html

Later,
-Michael
 

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
A lot of information,a lot of money.A lot of do's and don't. The power of mother
nature,that won,t away.This is going to be long and exspentive project,there will be no end to it.
 
Last edited:

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
In 2nd worlds your not going to run into much trouble. Even places here in the states won't mind. But once you get in to Salmon land the rules about what you can do with a water way stiffen considerably. For instance when a logging crew is working near a dry salmon stream, they get fined if branches fall into the dry stream bed.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
A lot of information,a lot of money.A lot of do's and don't. The power of mother
nature,that won,t away.This is going to be long and exspentive project,there will be no end to it.
Not at all, he could make something he could attach to his storm drains and use melting ice, or rain to power it. What would be a cool invention is a water powered "ROAD CLOSED" sign for floods. That way they would sit in 1ft of water getting power from the streaming water. When the water level goes down to 1 inch it turns itself off. For area's that get flooded 100 days a year this wouldn't be bad.
 

Thread Starter

mwalden824

Joined Mar 6, 2011
51
I've always had an interest in alternative energy methods and in particular ones people could implement on a small scale for their own energy needs. Solar panels are still expensive as hell and while a system could be implemented to power a house, there's a large upfront cost that would probably take several years to pay itself off. Haven't really looked into it lately.

I watched a discovery channel episode one day on future technology and they were talking about implementing underwater turbine generators powered by the underwater currents in large rivers up near Pittsburgh I think, and they said they could almost power the whole city with these. Another Idea I like is a generator powered by waves. A floating piece rides the waves while a stationary part is attached to the sea floor, the up and down motion pushes fluids with a piston of some sort and the fluids spin a turbine. I think that was how they described it anyway.

Not really sure if these technologies were ever employed or not, but they also probably have a high initial upfront cost. Hopefully over time technologies such as these will slowly replace the existing fossil fuel dependent energy production system we have going on now as the oil reserves get smaller and the price of it steadily rises.

Thanks for your input,
-Michael
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
Theres gonna be more money in solar power converting existing stand alone objects to solar power, like stop lights, If you had solar powered self contained stoplights they would never go out. Even never go flashing. They would even work when the powers out. Then you have all the signs like speedwarning signs, and road construction signs. These are being made into solar right now. I think thats where the immediate money is. Lighting in newer large houses. Basically anything you don't wanna run a wire too.
 

R!f@@

Joined Apr 2, 2009
9,918
IF I build anything like that here, I will end up in jail or the government will take over it saying they will sue me.
 
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