A feasibility study of small hydro power for selected locations in Egypt

Abstract

One of the biggest challenges facing the world today is to provide access to a safe and affordable electricity supply. Depending on the river flow, small-hydropower is often a cost-effective source of renewable energy. Egypt is home to part of Africa's longest river and it is a relatively reliable source. Many small hydropower plants can be installed in run-of-river schemes or implemented in existing river infrastructure. We argue that it is essential for the Egyptian government to make use of hydropower resources, not only to meet the increasing demand but also to reduce fossil fuel use, and associated environmental pollution. This paper investigates the small hydro energy potential at selected locations in Nile Delta-Egypt and presents a feasibility study of small hydropower for these locations. The head and water flow rates for the past five years are used to find out the hydro energy potential. The annual energy of three different small hydro turbines is calculated for eight selected regions in Nile Delta-Egypt. The analysis includes a comparison between energy outputs from the three hydro turbines types. Furthermore, a MATLAB program is built to compute the efficiency of the studied turbines in each site at different heads and water flow rates. It is found that the use of Crossflow and Kaplan turbines with different sizes can enhance electric energy production at the selected sites.