Off Grid Via Slow Moving River?

Posted by michael on Sunday April 11, 2004 @07:22AM from the make-sure-you-have-plenty-of-candles dept.

einstein writes "I live out in the middle of nowhere, and I lose power at the drop of a hat. My house is right next to the Susquehanna river, and all the kinetic energy going past my house makes just want to go off grid. Most homebuilt hydro power is lower volume/high speed. What would be a good, unobtrusive way to generate electricity from a high volume/low speed body of water? I'm between two large hydro dams, so the water level is fairly constant, but does tend to fluctuate 4-6ft in the winter due to ice floes and melting snow. I think maybe a miniature version of one of the recent submerged tidal generators might work... Does anyone have some suggestions on how I might go about this project?" More than a few people have done this before.

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stating the obvious by monkeyboy87 · 2004-04-11 07:27 · Score: 0, Offtopic

imagine a beowulf cluster of micro turbines....
MOD PARENT UP!!! PLEASE by spineboy · 2004-04-11 07:47 · Score: 0, Offtopic

just ignore me.. THe parent has some good insight. Why bother to reinvent the wheel, there is a reason that many people used water powered wheels on slow moving rivers.

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