On hack-a-day today, I saw this interesting link to a small hydroelectric generator. I’ve been interested in DIY/non-centralized generation of electricity for quite a while (without actually developing any serious knowledge about it, mind you) so I found the idea rather interesting. Paul taps water from a stream and uses it to feed a 2 inch water pipe, which eventually gets split into four 1/2 outlets which spray water onto a turbine which drives a low-rpm alternator.

Hydropower generator – Hack a Day.

The hack-a-day article did make one claim which made me pause though: it said it could generate 56VDC at 10A. Really? That’s 560 watts, which seemed a lot. In watching the video, it shows that it can generate 56V (actually AC), but that is without any load. As soon as a load (such as a charge controller) is placed on the circuit the voltage will drop. I’ll work out the math a bit at lunch, but I’d be surprised if you could get much over 100 watts of power. Still, not inconsiderable, and if I had a shack in the woods, it would be a great way to keep the place lit.

It’s also interesting to figure out what the reliability of such a system can be. The turbine is constructed from PVC elbows, and it’s not clear to me how they would handle the stress in continuous duty.

Still, very cool.