Pico hydro generation - 50W worth it?

MFW_ASAP

I was looking at a product called a Power Spout that generates hydro electricity on a small scale. I put in some figures into their calculator and the lowest it would come out with was 50w generation.

This would equate to 1.2kw per day, 36.5kw per month and 438kw per annum.

The cost of the grid enabled power spout is £1400 ex VAT

How does this compare to solar PV?

Is it worth contemplating?

Has anyone installed pico Hydro in here?

What's the lowest kw/h output would people think worth the effort?

michaels

I reckon with solar you might pay £1k per kw (with a 4kwh install) which south facing might produce 1mwh pa - but your device will produce 24/7 no just in the summer when the sun shines...

Martyn1981

MFW_ASAP wrote: »

I was looking at a product called a Power Spout that generates hydro electricity on a small scale. I put in some figures into their calculator and the lowest it would come out with was 50w generation.

This would equate to 1.2kw per day, 36.5kw per month and 438kw per annum.

The cost of the grid enabled power spout is £1400 ex VAT

How does this compare to solar PV?

Is it worth contemplating?

Has anyone installed pico Hydro in here?

What's the lowest kw/h output would people think worth the effort?

Nothing new about the power spout, ask on the renewables forums, lots of people will have devices like that.

There's no real minimum to generation, 50W background is great.

You don't say how much water you have available (litres/sec) nor the head you have. There are devices that operate at just 2m head, but generation is directly related to head, so it's very important.

The FiT rate for hydro is quite a lot higher than PV, but check what effect the FiT review will have.

Also remember you have all the additional costs of installing a hydro system, not just the turbine. And you'll need a review of your project by the EA and an abstraction licence which I think is four figures now.

Sadly, unlike PV which can probably be installed on about 20% of domestic properties, hydro (and wind) are limited to a very small number of suitable domestic locations but their higher generation costs are reflected in the FiT rates.

You would probably also want to consider some PV generation to fill in the summer periods when hydro typically produces less.

Mart.