[RE-wrenches] Grid-tie hydro

Jeff Clearwater jeffc at villagepower.com
Thu Apr 22 12:28:20 PDT 2010


Hi Mark,

Yes I've done several grid-tie hydro systems.  As 
Dave says Derik is  your man for components. 
I've also worked with SMA to tweak the settings 
on the SB to be a WB ("water boy").  Actually no 
tweaks are absolutely necessary.  But if you 
shorten the reset time it helps when the hydro 
goes down and you are trying to test it to bring 
it back up.  Derik is aware of these tweak 
refinements but it will work without any tweaks.

We have been running 2  2500 watt induction 
generators into two 2500 "Water Boys"  at one 
site now since the spring of '06 - 24 hours/day 
with no inverter failures.  We throttled the 
water down so that the each inverter see a 
continuous 2200 watts.  We don't dare to go 
higher as they run pretty hot at that.  4400 
watts continuous is 3168 KWHs/Month= 38,000 
KWHrs/yr!  Runs the whole ranch - Install cost 
was around $20,000.  Can send pics if you'd like.

Make sure you use redundant load dumps!

Best,

Jeff Clearwater
Village Power Design






>Derik at HI Power hydro has done several of 
>these with grid tie DC voltage with diversion.
>You can reach him at <mailto:derik at asis.com>derik at asis.com
><http://www.hipowerhydro.com/>http://www.hipowerhydro.com/
>cheers,
>David
>
>David Katz
>
>David Katz
>
>Chief Technical Officer
>
>AEE Solar
>
>1155 Redway Drive
>
>P.O. Box 339
>
>Redway, CA  95560
>
>Tel (707) 825-1200
>
>Fax (707) 825-1202
>
><mailto:david at aeesolar.com>dkatz at aeesolar.com
>
><http://www.aeesolar.com/>www.aeesolar.com
>
>
>
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>Mark Dickson wrote:
>
>>Hello Wrenches,
>>
>>Got one for you. . .
>>
>>We have a customer that has great potential for 
>>a micro-hydro system and already has the grid 
>>on his property.  The obvious way to tie the 
>>turbine unit in would be to go back through 
>>batteries and a GVFX or XW.  In trying to 
>>eliminate the batteries and the inefficiencies 
>>I want to look at using a battery-less grid-tie 
>>inverter.  I am assuming that I could use a 
>>small inverter such as the PVP 1100 and 
>>high-voltage Stream Engine.  The problem I am 
>>trying to work around is how to divert the 
>>~240DC output of the turbine, if and when the 
>>grid goes down.  Would this be as simple a 
>>placing a relay on the AC side of the inverter 
>>and having it switch on/off a large diversion 
>>load?
>>
>>For the diversion load I was thinking I could 
>>just series up a set of water heater elements 
>>to get to the necessary voltage.
>>
>>
>>
>>Has anybody accomplished this before?  Jay? 
>>Are there any other elegant solutions for this?
>>
>>
>>
>>Has anybody successfully used a WindyBoy with hydro?
>>
>>
>>
>>Best regards,
>>
>>
>>
>>Mark Dickson,
>>
>>NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer 
>>
>>Oasis Montana Inc.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Clearwater
Senior Design Engineer
NABCEP (tm) Certified Solar PV Installer
http://www.nabcep.org/
Village Power Design
Solar Design Consultation for the Commercial Sector
http://www.villagepower.com
gosolar at villagepower.com

Voice: 831-427-2799
Fax: 413-825-0703
245 Dufour St
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
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