Design and Development of an Ultra Low Head Axial Hydro Turbine for Electricity Supply: Part I

As a major resource for electricity, hydropower is widely used around the world for renewable energy. Traditionally, large high-capital cost dam equipped with large turbine system is preferred to produce sufficient power supply. However, recently large hydropower system is questioned because of the impact of dams on the local environment, which could be a major barrier for development of large hydropower system. Besides, billions people remain without access to electricity and most of them are in remote and rural location where is not suitable for large hydropower system. Therefore, the utilization of ultra-low-head (ULH) water energy (situations where the hydraulic head is less than 3m or the water flow rate is more than 0.5m/s with zero head) has becomes more attractive. Part I of this paper focus on developing a design methodology for a low-impact, damless Kaplan turbine system for ULH water resource.