Water Power In The Andes

Going to work these days is always a bit of a thrill for me--often more than I care for. It means crossing a 15,000 foot (4,570 m) pass over the Bolivian Andes and snaking down a muddy one lane road carved into the face of immense cliffs. The Most Dangerous Road in the World was the title of an old National Geographic article...

World's Largest Solar Machine

Actually I'm entering the world's biggest solar energy machine-the Amazon basin. Towering glacier-topped 20,000 foot (6,100 m) mountains are clearly visible from our tropical water power demonstration site. This mountainous east-facing wall so thoroughly captures the Amazon moisture that the western side-the Atacama desert-is the driest place in the world. Sometimes rain only falls there a few times during an entire lifetime.

But on this side, it's just the opposite. Uncounted streams and waterfalls abound, some falling hundreds of feet directly onto the roadway! About 80 people die yearly on this short section of road, since it is very narrow and slippery. Vehicles that slip off the road can simply disappear into dense vegetation a thousand feet (300 m) below. It's incredible to think that this is the only road into a tropical part of Bolivia that's the size of Texas.

It's a relief to arrive in the lovely 5,500 foot (1676 m) high town of Coroico, near our demo site. Green hillsides are covered with coffee, citrus, and bananas. This also happens to be the home of Bolivia's traditional coca leaf production, so the area is much affected by the U.S. "War on Drugs."

Campo Nuevo - Meeting People's Needs

Our family-sized appropriate technology organization, Campo Nuevo, was started to better the lives of Bolivia's rural poor. We teach them how to use their local natural resources for energy. We show them how easy it is to employ the abundant small local sources of water power to improve their lives. This can help make it possible for them to remain on their land and in their own communities.

We are working with Aymara speaking native Americans, one of the largest and most intact indigenous cultures in the Western Hemisphere. Notable for having withstood the Incan conquest, and later the Spaniards, the Aymaras are now succumbing to the pressures of modern global economics. Like rural people all over the "third world," they are being forced to relocate simply to survive. They usually migrate to a desolate l3,000 foot (3,960 m) suburb of La Paz, in order to compete for unskilled, low paying, and often temporary jobs.

A New/Old Solution

Although they may not realize it, what visitors to our demonstration site see is not actually new. It's actually a revival of the now nearly forgotten traditional use of water power. For thousands of years before the invention of centrally-generated electricity, water power was employed to directly run machines, something it does very well.

What is new is the development of a modern low-cost turbine specifically for this purpose-a "motor" driven by water power. We call it the "Watermotor." It can provide the energy to drive a variety of machines, replacing the mid-sized electric motors upon which nearly all modern production depends.

Lester Pelton, who invented the pelton wheel, produced a variety of these water powered motors and they were in use before l900. They were used to power individual machines - he even used one to run a sewing machine! The direct drive hydro units were replaced by electric motors after the popularization of centrally produced electricity.

Few people realize how closely rural poverty is related to the lack of machines necessary for local production and services. In the third world, the power grid is usually confined to cities and large towns. Rural people still use muscle power as everyone did in the past, and they do without electric lights. The need to generate cash to buy anything they don't produce themselves causes a focus on cash crops. This further reduces their self-sufficiency, encouraging a downward spiral towards dependency on a system that cannot be depended upon!

Demo Site
At our new Campo Nuevo demonstration site, we are featuring practical machines, directly powered by water. There are woodworking tools, air compressors, grain mills and an auto alternator to charge batteries and provide lighting. This is switched on when mechanical power is not being used, run by the same belt drive that powers the tools.

The main attraction at our site is our Campo Nuevo Watermotor driving a multipurpose woodworking unit. The machine is suitable for producing doors, window frames and furniture-necessities usually purchased from the city. It processes locally produced lumber instead of wood carried up from the Amazon forest.

The Watermotor at our demonstration site is provided with power from a water source located 60 feet (18.3 m) above the machine by 160 feet (50m.) of lightweight 4" plastic pipe.

We get 1.3 h.p at 1850 r.p.m.s using 115 gal. (440 l.) per minute with the Watermotor Model 90 , and 2.5 h.p. at 1000 r.p.m.s with Model 150 using about 225 gal. (850 l.) per minute.

At the heart of our Watermotor turbine is a Swedish designed 4 jet Turgo wheel and a patented Turgo control system which provides the same instant on/off power control as an electric motor.

Unlike an electric motor, the Watermotor costs nothing to operate and can't be "burned out" from hard use.

It's Not Easy

Not much of this area is served by roads or the power grid. The U.S. owned (and U.S. priced) power generating system has little incentive to provide long distance lines to a widely scattered and typically impoverished rural population. Water power is the sole available practical source of energy to run machines. There is not a good wind resource in the mountain valleys and PV is just not economical, compared to the abundant water power here.

There are major obstacles to the introduction of unfamiliar technology to an indigenous population that has traditionally used no machines of any kind. These people have little money to invest in anything that does not promise a practical return. In addition to this, the Aymaras are unlikely to be reached by advertising in the newspapers from La Paz. This is why we felt that a local demonstration site was necessary.

Other problems are encountered when machines, however useful, need to be "professionally" installed, maintained or repaired. Such services are frequently unreliable, hard to come by in rural areas, and expensive when available.

Keep It Simple

In designing the Watermotor system, we have tried to overcome these obstacles as much as possible. It is designed to be user-installed, maintained, and repaired because of the difficulties in finding competent, honest and reliable technical services in rural areas of Bolivia. Because the Watermotor is locally produced from common materials, most parts can be easily replaced.

The efficiency of direct drive water power is a big advantage. A surprisingly small amount of water falling a short distance can produce the 0.5 to 5 h.p. of mechanical power required by most common machines. This means that many potential water power sites are available, and a minimum of civil engineering is required.

Of course the power output of the Watermotor depends on the fall and the amount of water that one uses to run it. Here are some examples of other possible installations and the energy output that they would produce:

A Watermotor Model 90 would produce:
1.5 h.p.at 2365 r.p.m.s with a 100 ft. (30.5 m.) fall and 75 gal.(284 l.) per minute
3 h.p. at 2900 r.p.m.s with 150 ft (46 m.) fall and 100 gal.(378 l.) per minute

A Model 150 will produce:
2 h.p. at 865 r.p.m.s with a 40 ft. (12.2 m.) fall and 250 gal. (950 l.) per minute
3 h.p. at 950 r.p.m.s with a 75 ft. fall (23 m.) and 200 gal.(750 l.) per minute
5 h.p. at 1366 r.p.m.s with a 100 ft.(30.5 m.) fall and 250 gal.(950 l.) per minute

The Watermotor itself is very simple to operate, and maintain. It functions efficiently in a variety of water power situations. By merely experimenting with easily changed water jets of different sizes, it is possible to vary maximum power output. This also allows the turbine to maintain efficient output over seasonal water flow variations. A single control handle diverts water away from the Turgo wheel, instantly cutting power.

The Watermotor can be used to drive most stationary machines normally driven by an externally-mounted electric motor or small gasoline engine in the 0.5 to 4 horsepower range.

Machines being driven by the Watermotor can be mounted directly on the turbine housing or beside the turbine. The tools are connected to the Watermotor by a standard belt, which limits the distance between the two parts of the system.

Make the Comparison

How does the Watermotor stack up against the competition? I asked a couple of renewable energy experts to give me the rough cost of a wind or photovoltaic system capable of producing 2 1/2 hp of mechanical energy 24 hours a day, including installation in rural Bolivia and technical expertise for maintenance and repair.

Richard Perez of Home Power said, "Well, the photovoltaic panels alone will cost about US$35,000. And the requirement for 24 hour power at that level means a very large battery bank which will bring the system cost up to around US$70,000. And we still need to add small stuff like racks, inverter, and controls. Overall, I'd say about US$80,000. It really points out how cheap hydro is.

Mick Sagrillo, North American wind power guru, said, "My guess, using off the shelf equipment, would be that you'd need a Bergey Excel. While it's larger than what's needed, it's cheaper than putting up several smaller turbines. Cost for genny and controls is about US$19,000, less tower, wiring, batteries, and balance of systems components. Total system cost would be roughly US$35,000. The one message I always deliver at my wind power workshops is that if anyone has a good hydro site, they're in the wrong workshop. While wind is cheaper than PV, it's no comparison for a hydro site with a 100 percent capacity factor."

Now, this is not a scientific comparison, and these are admittedly rough figures. But the Watermotor can do this-produce 2 1/2 hp continuous-with a system cost of less than US$2,000. It's user installable and maintainable (two lube points), and easily repairable. It has only one moving part and is immune to damage from hard use. Consider also the sources of PV and wind equipment (all imported) and the possibility of damage from misuse or poor maintenance.

Watermotor type designs were abandoned about l00 years ago in the developed world in favor of electric motors. To the best of my knowledge, there are no machines equivalent to the Watermotor being produced today. Generally, very few products, no matter how useful, are produced with the aim of promoting self-sufficiency among the rural poor.

Making It Available

The best advertisement for our water driven machines is for them to be seen hard at work by the many people passing the demo site daily. Woodworking and grain milling machines in particular have a substantial per-hour cash value. Because the Watermotor is immune to damage from hard use, it is suitable to rent or lease. At current rates, the entire cost of a Watermotor installation should be recovered in only a few months.

We expect visitors to our demonstration site to have their own ideas about how they can use the Watermotor. The success of this site will provide us with knowledge and incentive to build similar sites in other parts of Bolivia.

While Bolivia is especially rich in water power resources, many other parts of the world have similar conditions, and similar needs. We would like to see this clean, self-renewing, and easy to use natural resource made available to all.

Access

Author: Ron Davis, Campo Nuevo, Casilla 4365 La Paz, Bolivia *
Mobile: +591 2 71527700 * contact@watermotor.net

Campo Nuevo is a California registered 50l(c)3 non-profit organization founded over fifteen years ago by Ron Davis and Diane Bellomy to bring simple technology to Bolivia's indigenous people.

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The Race To Harness Himalayan Hydropower

Spend a day in Kathmandu, Nepal's sprawling capital of 4-million people, and you'll quickly notice what has long been a fact of life in this landlocked Himalayan country, and many other South Asian nations - no reliable electricity supply exists.

Up to eight times a day, neighborhoods throughout the city suffer rolling power cuts due to load shedding, causing residents and businesses alike to either carry on in the darkness, or rely on expensive, diesel-consuming generators to keep the lights on. Although the country's civil war ended in 2006, carrying the promise of restored domestic stability and accelerated economic development, Nepal's economy has remained hamstrung by an inconsistent energy supply, with only 40 percent of the population having access to electricity. This situation persists despite the fact that the country sits on top of a virtual goldmine - an estimated 80,000 megawatts (MW) of untapped hydroelectricity, of which it has harnessed a scant 700 MW.

Nepal's great untapped hydropower potential has not gone unnoticed. Neighbors India and China actively have courted the country for years, seeking dam construction contracts and energy export deals to help meet their own soaring domestic energy needs. But while some Nepalese hydroelectric projects have moved forward, some of the country's more ambitious hydroelectric development plans have been delayed or scrapped altogether since 2006, owing to Nepal's notoriously fractious internal politics, and persistent social unrest near proposed dam-construction sites in rural areas formerly sympathetic to the Maoist insurgency. One reason for the impasse surrounding many major hydroelectric projects is that Nepal has long been wary of foreign meddling in its internal affairs, which has meant that Indian and Chinese efforts to bankroll major infrastructure projects are automatically viewed with suspicion.

India and China have become locked in competition to ink construction contracts in Bhutan and Burma as well, two countries similarly spanned by the Himalaya that possess substantial undeveloped hydroelectric resources. Bhutan and Burma have both embraced the idea of heightened hydroelectric development, reflecting a different attitude than Nepal's regarding both energy infrastructure and foreign contractors. Bhutan would benefit greatly from increased domestic power production, given that it now uses only 390 MW of its 30,000 MW hydropower potential (or 1.3 percent). Even at that modest level of development, hydropower has already emerged as one of the mainstays of the Bhutanese economy, alongside tourism. However, the country currently lacks the technical resources to further bolster its hydroelectric capacity, a vacuum that state-owned Indian energy firms have rushed to fill. Indian firms have competitive advantage over in China in this regard, as Chinese-Bhutanese relations have remained tense over the years due to persistent quarreling over contested border areas. As a result, many of the country's high-profile hydroelectric projects - such as the 2,500 MW Sankosh River Hydropower project, slated to become the world's fifth tallest dam upon completion in 2016 - are contracted to Indian companies.

Burma, meanwhile, represents one of the last major untapped sources of hydroelectricity in South Asia. From Burma's point of view, developing energy resources in the country's mountainous north - where many proposed hydroelectric sites lie - is strategically important for two reasons. Firstly, developing some of the country's estimated 40,000 MW of hydroelectric potential would help shore up domestic energy supply in this country of 54 million, which is slated to grow to 61 million by 2025, and nearly 71 million by 2050. Currently, Burma has harnessed only 2,440 MW, or six percent of this potential. Secondly, excess hydroelectricity produced in this region could be sold to consumers in adjacent Yunnan province (China) and Assam state (India), two economically underdeveloped regions bordering Burma that would benefit greatly from a more reliable energy supply. More

 

Hydropower Continues Steady Growth

World hydroelectric power generation has risen steadily by an average 3 percent annually over the past four decades. In 2011, at 3,500 billion kilowatt-hours, hydroelectricity accounted for roughly 16 percent of global electricity generation, almost all produced by the world’s 45,000-plus large dams. Today hydropower is generated in over 160 countries.

Four countries dominate the hydropower landscape: China, Brazil, Canada, and the United States. Together they produce more than half of the world’s hydroelectricity.

Much of the world’s recent growth came from China, where hydropower generation more than tripled from 220 billion kilowatt-hours in 2000 to 720 billion in 2010. In 2011, despite a drop in generation due to drought, hydropower accounted for 15 percent of China’s total electricity generation.

Brazil, the second-largest producer of hydropower worldwide, gets 86 percent of its electricity from water resources. It is home to an estimated 450 dams, including the Itaipu Dam, which generates more electricity than any other hydropower facility in the world—over 92 billion kilowatt-hours per year. More