Homework #1

Hydropower
1. Micro-Hydropower. You have a cabin in the Colorado wilderness far away from civilization
and want to install a small hydro generator to provide electricity. A stream runs down a hill
behind your cabin where you can construct a simple run-of-river hydro installation. You
calculate that the effective head of the installation is 25 feet and that water would flow
through the system at a rate of 50 cubic feet per minute. The simple inexpensive hydro turbo-
generator (turbine mated with electric generator) that you intend to buy has a working
efficiency of 60%. Answer the following:

a. How much power can you generate with this system?

b. How many 100 watt light bulbs can you power with this hydro setup?

Hint
First convert to metric measurements
o 1 meter = 3.28 feet
o 1 cubic meter (m3) = 35.31 cubic feet. (ft3)

2. Macro-Hydropower. The Arizona dams in the Colorado River creating Lake Powell behind
it. The dam has a height of 710 feet. Total nameplate (maximum continuous) generating
capacity for the power plant at the dam is about 1 GW (1 million kW). Assume an effective
head of 700 feet and generating efficiency of 95%.

a. At maximum capacity, what flow is required through the dams turbines to generate its
nameplate power? Express flow in cubic meters.
b. If the dam operates at 60% of capacity on average, how much energy does it produce in a
year? Express your answer in watts (e.g., W, kW, MW, GW, etc.).
c. How many people should this energy support, assuming average community
consumption of 3000 kWh per year per person?

3. Pumped Storage. Consider a pumped hydro system that is used for energy storage. During
off-peak hours, excess electricity is used to pump water up to a storage reservoir. During peak
demand periods the flow is reversed and electric power is generated by flowing the water
through a hydraulic turbine. The storage reservoir is 100 m above the hydro turbine/pump
units and the hydraulic turbine can accommodate up to 650 l/s (liters per second) of flow.

a. How much area would the pumped storage reservoir need to be to store 1000 MWh of
hydro energy if its average depth were 10 m? Express your answer in square meter. Is
this reasonable?
b. Estimate the theoretical power (assume 100% efficiency) produced during the times that
electricity is generated.
c. If the round-trip efficiency of the pumped storage unit is 75% (i.e., energy out / energy
in), how much water (m3) must the reservoir hold to store the same 1000 MWh of
energy?

Hints

density of water is 1000 kg/m3 (or 1.0 kg/liter)

acceleration of gravity g is 9.8 m/s2