Village-level hydropower for developing economies: Accelerating access to electricity using low-cost hydrokinetic technology for remote community: 1. Laboratory flume experiment

Abstract

This article presents the feasibility of a low-cost hydrokinetic turbine technology developed and experimentally tested in the laboratory for enhancing electricity access in isolated off-grid communities in the rural areas. The research and development involved using e-waste and locally available materials to develop a modular energy conversion system using rivers’ kinetic flow. A decommissioned boat motor with a 0.24 m diameter rotor is operated as a turbine. Four augmentation structures were developed and tested in a flume to evaluate their performance for flow acceleration and application for energy conversion. The four varied configurations produced distinctive performances in an overflow test condition at an approach velocity of 0.25 m/s such that: nozzle 1(8.111 ± 0.107 V DC, 7.116 ± 0.098 V AC), Nozzle 2 (10.038 ± 0.103 V DC, 8.804 ± 0.123 V AC), nozzle 3 (8.523 ± 0.009 V DC, 7.543 ± 0.008 V AC) and Diffuser_type 1 (8.053 ± 0.082 V DC, 7.147 ± 0.144 V AC). Only nozzle 1 was tested in dammed condition and produced 13.248 ± 0.123 V DC and 11.395 ± 0.008 V AC. Nozzle 2 produced a promising performance serving as a reference in comparison to the other three configurations under similar flow conditions.