I have a small stream on my property that I use for watering my lawn. I have a 3/4hp shallow well pump to pump the water from the streambed to a holding tank, about 25 ft of lift, and a 1.5hp hi volume pump to feed the sprinklers from the tank.  That pump will only self prime about 1 foot intake. Since neither of these is submersible they are mounted above flood height, about 20 ft, At low flow the stream is only about 200 CFM (30 ft wide and a few inches deep).  As it crosses my property the streambed has about 4 ft of drop.  Because of a sharp bend just before it flows off my land, there is a gravel bar damming up the flow so all that drop is in a few feet.  I have thought of trying to somehow use this hydro power, but when it rains the huge volume would wash away anything.  Moving water has tremendous force. There are chunks of concrete that have washed down from a half mile upstream that weigh over 1000 lbs.  I have seen the water 35 feet wide 20 feet deep moving at over 20 mph, that’s over 21,000 CFS

tags:  hydro,  hydroelectric, renewable energy, turbine, alternative energy, micro-hydro

Tags: Hydro Hydroelectric Renewable-energy