Hydrokinetic Working Group

Comment

Comment by Don Eller on July 19, 2010 at 5:42pm

We are back producing again and have a nice steady streach of producing a little over 1 kw continiously Had to upsize a jack shaft from 1 1/4" to 2", there is a lot of torque and the 1 1/4" shaft could not handle it. The wheel has processed drift flawlessly. We are going to let it set and produce for the rest of the season without any changes.

Comment by Jack Schmid on July 1, 2010 at 11:11am

Congratulations to Dave and the folks in Ruby for getting the turbine deployed again. This is good news.

Comment by Martin Leonard III on June 30, 2010 at 11:33am

Just got a message from Dave at the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council.

The 5kW turbine at Ruby has been successfully redeployed. A big WIN in the fact that the permanent anchors and anchor rodes that were successfully placed in the thalweg in 09 were able to be retrieved and utilized again.

Hopefully we will hear more about production and the fish studies as the season progresses.

Way to go!

Comment by Jack Schmid on June 14, 2010 at 11:42am

Congratulations Don,
Getting the wheel running and feeding power to the grid is a milestone. Thanks for the picture, it is a great graphic example of the forces at play in your system. You are doing some good work and you are getting some valuable information.

Jack

Comment by Don Eller on June 14, 2010 at 10:37am

PICT0008.AVIPICT0014.JPGWheel screen shot.pdf

Comment by Don Eller on June 14, 2010 at 10:32am

Hi all,

We have actually produced energy and put it on the grid. Currently the wheel is in for a little work, stiffening and reinforcing. It is very hard to comprehend the forces at play until you see them deform an 1 1/4" axel or a piece of 2 X 2" square steel tubing like it was not even there.
I bent the axel by loading the wheel too quickly, just like letting the clutch out to fast in a car.
Another surprise has been the harmonics and cycles that occur which dissipate energy. Just by fastening the main anchor line in the middle and taking out the spring like action, another 200 watts was gained.
We had a flawless 13 hour run where we generated 13 KWH and put it on the grid. Definitely not what was hoped for on the output but substantially better than any other system’s output with the slower current.
With the stiffening up of the drive structure and tweaking of the system we should end up around 1.5kw-2kw continuous output on to the grid.
Don

Comment by Jack Schmid on January 6, 2010 at 1:40pm

Don,
You are working on what seems to be the hardest part of putting together a small scale hydrokinetic device. Effectively coupling a generator to a high torque, low rpm device is a challenge. Hopefully the Ginlong generator will be suitable.

I also agree with your efficiency philosophy in your earlier post that it is economic efficiency that we are after. If you put together a system that is in the ballpark of economic efficiency, you can then explore the possibility of optimizing for higher efficiencies.

I look forward to your next step

Comment by Don Eller on January 4, 2010 at 1:29pm

Unit has not produced electricity as of this point in time. Unit has been in the river two seasons refining operation and design. Had a very hard time finding gearing, a generator and control system I could afford, this has been the hold up. Finally found www.ginlong.com which has low speed PMGs and control systems. Am staged to be producing this summer. Based on actual torque and rotational velocity measurements 7.5kw is very conservative but proof is in actual production. One other modification is required to the device, a wind shroud to minimize drag from wind when there is a down river wind. The wind shroud should actually increase the overall production of the unit for both up and down river winds.

Comment by Gwen Holdmann on January 4, 2010 at 12:42pm

Don,

What I like about the arrangement is the simplicity. Have you actually been able to generate 7-12kW with your unit?

Gwen

Comment by Don Eller on January 4, 2010 at 12:03pm

The math and analysis is correct. River velocity is everything. What you will find is that 4.5 mph is typically what can be expected as the maximum practical velocity. There are places where there is faster current but not very many and not near most villages. Remember the 1-1.9kw/m2 is what can be expected. A unit like in the video produces 7-12kw because the blade surface area is 7.5m2 so for a typical village you only need 10 units to produce all required electricity during the summer months. Village electrical loads fall off tremendously during the summer, typically half of the winter load. For the unit in the video producing at 7.5 kw 24/7 the unit produces 180 kwh in a day. Assuming diesel efficiency remains constant the value of the energy produced is 180/13.5 * $2.60 = $34.66/day 13.5kwh/gallon= diesel efficiency $2.60/gal=cost of fuel or about $1040/month not back on a $10000 investment that can be operated 5 months out of the year.
Another big plus is unlike lift turbines where if they process a tree damage will occur, we have seen the paddle wheel process 40 ft 8 inch trees with no problem, just don't be behind the paddle wheel when the tree comes shooting out the back end. Also unlike the much faster speeds of lift turbines the flat slow moving blade will not hurt the fish, they go around it. The biggest advantage however is that the technology makes sense and is very familiar to villagers, deployment is something they are used to and requires no special tools.

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