My first hydro system 30kw -- need help finding a gen

[sensel]

I live in the philippines, the amount of natural resources here in the form of water and wind is astounding. I'm looking to take advantage of some of those natural resources to my financial advantage.

I have a 'river' (more like a large stream) that I live near. At the start of the river in the mountains there are chains and chains of waterfalls.

There is one fall in specific with a very small focal point. I've used this to calculate the rate of flow and volume.

45L/S and a head of around 200M (I can pipe the water to the bottom of the mountain if I want, so up to a max of 3000M or so)

To account for inaccuracies in my calculations of flow rate, I'm using 30L/S with a head rate of 200M (30*200*7.5=45KW)

I was going to look for a 30KW gen to start with. Afterwards I'm looking to expand the generating capacity over the next 3-4 years to upwards of 1MW.

I've been trying to find hydro generators at a reasonable rate. I've noticed that since this whole 'man-made' global warming BS has started that the prices have gone up rather than down.

At this point I'm trying to decide if it would be more feasible to buy the turbine, find the motor locally, and build the containment unit myself.. Alternatively, if someone knows of a manufacturer of hydro gensets in a place such as india, taiwan, or china which doesn't charge an arm and a leg for them. That information would be most appreciated.

If anyone is interested in exploiting some of the resources here for themselves.. I'm getting a rate of 0.08 USD equiv in philippine pesos (48/1 php/usd exchange rate) per kw. They also have laws here similar to the US where power companies are required to buy back power from individual providers. The one problem though is that most of the streams and lakes are owned by the government and considered government property. You will need a proper feasibility study and to get a permit from the local mayor (for hydro systems <100kw) or from the power regulatory body (for systems < 100KW). There are also many incentives.

[scottsAI]

Hello sensel,

Many benefits to using an induction motor as a generator.

You need 40-50HP, In the states used or surplus motors in this range are cheap.

With that Head, the turbine should be able to spin a 2 pole motor at the right speed.

Keep us posted on what your doing, interesting.

Have fun,

Scott.

[sensel]

Here are some pictures of the river and the waterfall up the mountains.

http://gur.ath.cx/wf/

[chadking]

Sensal:

Beautiful pictures!  Be the sounds of things, you've got some respectable resources to work with. It's almost a shame to block up a nice waterfall like that, but it should put out some decent power for you.

Keep us informed as the system comes together!

Chad

[sensel]

Although there is a natural pen stock up to the right of the waterfall (not visible in pictures). I will not be reducing the flow at this waterfall specifically. I'm only using it as a natural weir to calculate flow rate.

My 45L/S calculations are during the peak of the 'dry' (summer) season here. During the wet and rainy season when the typhoons start rolling through the flow rate easily doubles or triples. So even If I were to dam up this fall, there would still be more than enough to create a nice little waterfall for people to enjoy.

There are other viable penstock areas down from the falls a little bit. The local government would like to turn this area into a tourist attraction. In order to get my permit for the hydro electric system I will definitely have to build up the area (hanging bridge, roads, etc). So it will still be a nice beautiful place to visit.

Falls like this though are a dime a dozen, 90% of them are even more remote than the one shown in the pictures so they arent very viable for tourist attractions. Those will be my future projects