Sustainable rural energy: traditional water wheels in Padang (PWW), Indonesia

Abstract

The traditional water wheel with simple construction coupled with a basic concept of technology can be utilised as a renewable rural energy system. Water wheel is constructed from hardwood material with a diameter of 300 cm and width of 40 cm. It is built on a river using water flow to generate the movement of the wheel. The water wheel application in the area showed that it is suitable to be utilised to elevate and distribute water to rice fields located at a higher level than the water level of the river. The water wheel capacity is about 100 – 120 litres/min. It could continuously irrigate ± 5 ha. of the rice fields. One of the advantages of this water wheel is to function as a green technology promising no negative effect on the environment and a big economic impact on the rural economy, increasing the productivity of the rice fields.