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Activity 9.2
ESTABLISHING A SMALL SCALE HYDRO SYSTEM
Aim:
When you have completed this activity you will have formed opinions on
the relative merits of run-of-river and dammed hydro systems.
You will need:
Procedure:
- A farmer asks you for advice about installing a micro-hydroelectric
power supply. He wants to put a power unit just below a small waterfall
on his property. One adviser advised him to build a weir (or barrier)
above the waterfall to make sure that the power plant would always have
a head of water. Another adviser told him to dig a channel from the
side of the river to conduct water to the power plant and then to let
the water go back to the river.
- Draw a diagram of the two suggestions showing water upstream of waterfall,
weir or side channel; water entering power plant through (penstock),
turbine, generator; water leaving power plant through the tail race,
(river downstream of waterfall). If the waterfall is 10 metres high,
show the head of the system. What advice would you give the farmer about
where to put his hydroelectric plant?
Available as:
 PDF
– Activity 9.2
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