During the last two weeks I came across various sites in South Africa (on the North East Escarpment) that may be ideal for hydropower.
The owners of this land are all interested in such solutions as it is normally quite expensive to tie into the national grid. The problem is that very little information on small scale hydropower is generally available in South Africa. A typical site would have a pressure head of 40 to 60 metres. I would guess a Pelton wheel or Francis turbine can work. Normally 50 to 100 mm pipes are already installed to provide water for trout farming, water bottling, etc. Maybe these already installed pipes can be used. The flow rate must be measured or can probably be calculated. The pipe length varies between 300m and 1000m (10 bar HDPE or steel pipes). My rough estimate is that generation units will be in the region of 5 to 15 Kw. I note that it will be fairly expensive to import turbines. The price for a 7Kw unit is roughly USD 8000 for a Pelton unit and USD 12000 for a Francis (is this similar to a Turgo ?) mixed flow unit. Prices include controls and alternator. Are these prices fair? My aim is firstly to determine the costs of this type of power generation to enable a cost comparison to the Grid. What suppliers is available in our region? As my knowledge of micro hydropower is quite limited I will appreciate any feedback. If any other person interested in hydropower in South Africa or any other place in Africa, please feel free to answer. Regards Ivan Basson North West Province South Africa Confidentiality Warning ________________________ This e-mail message contains confidential information which is intended for the use of the person to whom it is addressed. If you received it in error, please notify the sender and delete the material from any computer. Any disclosure, re-transmission, dissemination or any other use of this information is strictly prohibited. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/EA3HyD/3MnJAA/79vVAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Does your company feature in the microhydro business directory at http://microhydropower.net/directory ? If not, please register free of charge and be exposed to the microhydro community world wide! NOTE: The advertisements in this email are added by Yahoogroups who provides us with free email group services. The microhydro-group does not endorse products or support the advertisements in any way. More information on micro hydropower at http://microhydropower.net To unsubscribe: send empty message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/microhydro/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
