Alternative energy source (free!)

Cherianda

Looking for any information on grants available to harness water power to provide electricity! I live next to a source of constant running water.:j

ed110220

Cherianda wrote: »

Looking for any information on grants available to harness water power to provide electricity! I live next to a source of constant running water.:j

Hi, there are no grants as far as I'm aware, like solar PV the incentive is that you are paid a certain amount for all the electricity you generate (whatever you do with it, called a feed in tariff or FIT) and another amount for electricity you export to the grid (called an export tariff). For hydro of less than 15 kW the FIT at the moment is 19.31p/kWh and the export tariff is 4.85p/kWh.

Ed

zeupater

Cherianda wrote: »

Looking for any information on grants available to harness water power to provide electricity! I live next to a source of constant running water.:j

Hi

Welcome to the forum ....

In order to be able to extract energy from the running water there needs to be either a vast flow volume or the ability to capture water at one level and use gravity/pressure to accelerate it to a lower level. If you don't have the ability to create a decent head of water you'll be limited to a basic 'undershot' system which is a pretty inefficient option, hence the need for a vast flow ...

If you could post some further information, someone should be able to point you in the right direction ...

HTH
Z

EricMears

Cherianda wrote: »

Looking for any information on grants available to harness water power to provide electricity! I live next to a source of constant running water.

Broadly speaking I agree with previous comments by Ed & Z.

But a few caveats :-

Living near water isn't quite enough. Do you actually own the stream bed or does it form the boundary of your property but is owned by someone else ? You might need permission to use the water.

You might also need permission from Environment Agency &/or River Authority for your project.

You really need to be able to estimate the total flow at the point where you're thinking of installing equipment then work out how much energy is involved in it moving and do some sums based on an (optimistic !) ability to convert 5% of that energy into electricity.

Martyn1981

EricMears wrote: »

B
You might also need permission from Environment Agency &/or River Authority for your project.

I think you're right, an environmental assessment and an abstraction licence (even if the water is returned immediately) are probably needed and are quite costly/bureaucratic.

That said, hydro power is lovely, just tricky to do it economically (on the small scale).

Mart.