Micro-hydropower Projects Research Articles

Sustainable and green energy development to support women's empowerment in rural areas of Indonesia: Case of micro-hydro power implementation

Micro-Hydro Power (MHP) is a type of hydroelectric power that typically generates electricity from 5 kW to 100 kW using the natural flow of water. This study investigates the MHP plant as one of the renewable energy projects in rural areas of Indonesia and its benefits to rural women. Implementation of the renewable energy (RE) projects were initiated by local non-government organizations (NGOs) and donor agencies that provide funding, technical assistance, and training for the rural community. The MHP projects discussed in this paper were located in rural areas of West Java and East Java. The empirical data show that MHP not only provides green electricity but also gives benefits to many households. It significantly impacts women's empowerment, gender relations, and their relationship to rural development, including improves their living conditions. The biggest challenges for future implementations of MHP at the national level are maintaining the local's responsibility, networking to connect and motivate practitioners from various institutions and organizations, and developing sustainable and successful Indonesia's energy programs in the long run.

The Social Return Potential of Micro Hydropower in Water Networks Based on Demonstrator Examples

Micro hydropower (MHP) provides a viable renewable energy solution from which individuals, organisations and communities can also derive social value and benefits. Desk studies and literature reviews show limited studies that (a) quantify the social impact of MHPs in water networks and (b), establish evaluation methods for such analysis. To date, most studies relating to MHP projects have focused on physical and technological parameters, as well as cost and environmental factors that influence their design, installation, operation, and maintenance. Less attention has been given to the intangible social, political, and institutional considerations, which are also important for the acceptability and adoption of renewables such as MHPs, and for their performative longevity. This study addresses these gaps. The social return on investment (SROI) method was used as the basis to quantify the cost and social returns of three MHP demonstrators in a public and private water supply, and irrigation network in Europe. The value inputs and outputs from each case were analysed and a SROI range of between 2.6 and 5.8 euros for each one euro invested was determined. The findings were further evaluated using sensitivity tests. This work serves as a useful first step to establishing a SROI benchmark range for MHP schemes in water networks, extrapolatable for other renewable energy interventions. They also highlight the opportunities and challenges of quantifying and forecasting the social returns of MHPs to guide future work.

Sustainability Assessment of Micro-Hydropower Projects

Sustainability Assessment of Micro-Hydropower Projects

Micro-Hydropower Project Launched in Oregon

Micro-Hydropower Project Launched in Oregon

Energy 4 all? Investigating gendered energy justice implications of community-based micro-hydropower cooperatives in Ethiopia

More than 70% of the population in Ethiopia lack access to electricity and thus rely on conventional sources of energy such as biomass that is associated with negative consequences on health and the environment. Decentralized community-based micro-hydropower plants (MHPs) are being utilized as effective means to transition to modern low-carbon energy systems providing access to electricity to communities in remote areas. However, there exist a knowledge gap regarding energy justice dimensions and gendered impacts related to sustainable energy transitions in the Global South. This research investigates the gendered justice implications of low-carbon energy projects in the case of four community-based micro-hydropower projects in Ethiopia implemented by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ). Although the projects generally achieved positive outcomes for the lives of the villager’s socio-economic impacts on income; productive use, health and education affected men and women differently. The particular energy needs, uses and challenges that women face were insufficiently addressed and hence are limiting the opportunities for women to benefit equally from access to electricity. Generally, procedural justice aspects such as access to information, consultation and participation seemed to be insufficient to create a sense of ownership which in turn can jeopardize the long-term sustainability of the hydropower plants.

Sustainable Development around Small Scale Mining Areas by the Development of Micro Hydro Power: Application Cases in Cameroon

Of all the precious metals buried in the Cameroonian subsoil, gold is certainly the longest exploited. It has longtime been the subject of artisanal exploitation. In 2014, the monthly national production was estimated at around 170 kg. In these mining areas, people still live in a screaming precariousness of which one of the main causes is often the lack of electricity, because of the distance of these localities to the national electricity network. Cameroon has a great hydroelectric potential, but the access rate to electricity is still very low in isolate or rural areas of this country. The objective of this work is to show that it is possible to efficiently exploit gold in isolated areas and contribute to the sustainable development of these localities through the development of micro hydro power (MHP). The mining community of Tikondi in the East Region of Cameroon is the practical case study for an illustration. The results of this study show that the development of the MHP project can be developed with installed power of 87 kW, where the Banki-Michell turbine is recommended according to the Sulzer-Escher Wyss diagram. The investment cost evaluated at 79,832,775 FCFA (1 Euro = 656 FCFA). It is a profitable project with a maximum payback period of 8 years. This project can be easily funded by gold mining activity. That Tikondi’s MHP can make this village becoming attractive for others activities, improving the quality of education of children (there is not any school and lots of them do not go to school), the building of health centers and the quality of life in that locality and therefore contribute to their sustainable development too.

Prioritizing the Weightage of Sustainability Criteria and Sub-Criteria of Decentralized Micro-Hydropower Projects for Rural Electrification in Nepal

In many cases, sustainability of renewable energy systems (RES) is being analyzed by identifying certain criteria and sub-criteria considering equal weightage among the respective groups. However in reality, relative weightage of criteria and sub-criteria vary due to many reasons. Thus, this paper tries to prioritize the weightage of criteria and sub-criteria of decentralized micro-hydropower projects for rural electrification by analyzing sustainability indicators related to four dimensions- technical, social, economic, and environmental. An Analytical Hierarchy Process –Online Software (AHP-OS) model is used to prioritize the weightage of respective criteria and sub-criteria through expert opinion. Suitable goal, criteria and sub-criteria are developed after reviewing pertinent literature and consultation of the experts. The results reveal that technical criteria (0.362) is the most crucial sustainability criteria followed by economic (0.290) and social (0.226). Environmental criteria (0.122) is found to be the least preferred criteria. The results reveal that ‘energy availability’ (10.8%) is observed to be the most preferred and ‘GSI inclusion’ (2.4%) is ranked to be the least preferred sub-criteria among the 19 sub-criteria. Nepal, being a developing country, shows a trend of people preferring the development of energy services first at a relatively low cost without considering the environment and gender/social inclusion. As a result, technical and economic criteria and sub-criteria are preferred more than that of environmental and social. The outcome of the research can help decision-makers and policy-makers in shaping energy policies, plans, and programs, and foster future pathways for providing sustainable rural electrification in the country. Keywords: Indicators, Sustainability, Multi-criteria analysis, Prioritizing, Pairwise DOI : 10.7176/JETP/9-9-02 Publication date: December 31 st 2019

Designing and economic aspects of run-of-canal based micro-hydro system on Balloki-Sulaimanki Link Canal-I for remote villages in Punjab, Pakistan

Load shedding has been a continuous challenge for the country on its way to advancement in industrialization and improvement in the living standard of its inhabitants. National energy mix is imported fossil fuel dominant affecting the buying options of the people. This paper proposes a grid-connected run-of-canal based micro-hydropower system and presents the designing of the proposed micro-hydropower system on the available head on a link canal between Balloki-barrage on the River Ravi and Sulaimanki-barrage on the River Sutlej. The electricity is to be used to supply the load of nearby villages and the surplus energy is to be fed into the nearby 11-kV grid while in peak hours, electricity is purchased from the grid. HOMER was used to verify the technical and economic feasibility of the proposed micro-hydropower project in meeting the load requirements. As the proposed system is only hydro resourced, HOMER performed optimization analysis and provided Net Present Cost (NPC) and the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of the proposed grid-connected micro-hydro system. Optimization analysis verified the validity of the proposed system based on the LCOE and the NPC. The system is expected to recover all the costs in the 5th year of the lifetime of the project.

Impact of Micro Hydropower Projects on Household Income, Expenditure and Diversification of Livelihood Strategies in Azad Jammu and Kashmir

The study examines the impact of Micro Hydropower (MHP) projects on households’ income, consumption and diversification of livelihood strategies in District Hattian Bala, Azad Jammu and Kashmir. A multinomial logistic model is used to investigate the possible role of MHP and other control variables on households’ adoption of livelihood strategies. The Results show that MHP-micro hydropower has a positive significant effect on household’s adoption of non-farm and diversified livelihood strategies. These findings suggest that MHP projects in Northern areas of Pakistan could help in improving household’s income and consumption through adoption of high income livelihood strategies. Keywords: Micro Hydropower (MHP), Livelihood Strategies, Income and Expenditures, Poverty Alleviation, Multinomial Logistic Model

A life cycle assessment of the construction phase of eleven micro-hydropower installations in the UK

The rapid deployment of renewable energy technologies continues, yet the environmental impacts associated with their construction is accepted without sustainable design considerations. This life cycle assessment study quantifies the embodied burdens in the construction phase of eleven micro-hydropower installations, ranging from 70–100 kW in size. The consumption of concrete and aggregates, metals and plastics influence each of the five impact categories assessment differently. In relation to global warming potential, upstream production of concrete and aggregates contributed 25–44%, whilst production of plastics contributed 27–49%. For acidification potential, production of metals and plastics contributed 29–67% and 19–45%, respectively. Production of metals used in MHP projects contributed 86–98% of human toxicity potential and 79–98% of abiotic resource depletion, whilst production of plastics contributed 56–77% of fossil resource depletion potential. One low-head scheme had the highest global warming, acidification and fossil resource depletion burdens due to large quantities of materials used in construction, while another scheme demonstrated high human toxicity and abiotic resource depletion burdens due to a 3-km grid connection upgrade for exporting electricity. The results were more sensitive to the quantity of materials used in the micro-hydropower projects than to changes in transport and construction contributions. The use of alternative materials could reduce global warming potential, e.g. a wood-frame powerhouse instead of concrete construction would reduce it by 6–12%. The results also indicated a general trend of reduced burdens per kWh electricity generated as capacity increased. However, no clear correlations were found between site-specific characteristics and environmental impacts in constructing these micro-hydropower projects. Therefore, independent life cycle assessment case studies are still required to inform better construction practices for specific renewable energy projects, with significant potential to improve environmental performance, especially in relation to resource efficiency as per circular economy principles.

Sustainability of Renewable Off-Grid Technology for Rural Electrification: A Comparative Study Using the IAD Framework

This paper analyses the implementation of renewable off-grid technologies in rural areas, especially where an extension to the national electricity grid was not considered economically feasible. Implementation of remote, stand-alone, electricity technologies as alternatives to a grid connection to provide sustainable electricity access have often failed with many planned projects not realised or abandoned. Our initial assumption was that stand-alone electricity project exhibiting higher scores on sustainability indicators would benefit communities more and make their endurance more likely. However, the impact of the stand-alone technology was often overruled or its quality weakened by government preferences wishing to realise a connection to the central electricity grid. Empirically, the study compares three cases of stand-alone micro-hydropower projects and three cases of stand-alone solar photovoltaic projects in Bogor Regency, Indonesia. It is based on qualitative document analysis, complemented by multiple rounds of semi-structured interviews and observations. The paper assesses the extent to which each project met indicators of technical, economic, social, environmental, and institutional sustainability. The paper tries to explain the endurance of the project from these sustainability scores and uses additional explanations from Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. The findings show that, for the studied local communities, the attractiveness of a grid connection overrules the virtues of a stand-alone electricity project, despite its quality, successful operation and impact. Our research also shows that government policy priorities changed in the rural electrification programme for some communities. In these situations, the off-grid rural electrification programme predominantly provided only temporary access to sustainable electricity for remote local communities that remained waiting and hoping for a grid connection to connect them to fossil fuel-dominated electricity.

End Use Promotion of Micro Hydro Project for its Sustainable Development (A Case Study of Malagad Khola MHP)

This research is an attempt to explore the sustainability of a Micro-hydro power project. A micro-hydropower project can make a substantial impact in developing countries where significant water resources exist and where economically viable alternatives are few, such as Nepal. This research explores the opportunities to sustain a micro-hydropower project for a long period with acceptable revenues. Willingness to pay among the community and possibility of productive end uses have been studied. The study finds many possible end uses that can improve sustainability of the project.Journal of the Institute of Engineering, 2017, 13(1): 125-132

Landscape vulnerability and rehabilitation issues: a study of hydropower projects in Garhwal region, Himalaya

The Himalaya is known for its rich biodiversity, and it supports the Indian subcontinent with wide varieties of natural resources including the life-sustaining water. Its huge potential to develop micro-hydropower projects is untapped. Large-scale multi-purpose river valley projects are not feasible as the landscape of Garhwal region is highly vulnerable—ecologically fragile, geologically unstable and tectonically and seismically active. Here, the issues of landscape vulnerability and rehabilitation, due to the construction of hydropower projects, are renowned. In Garhwal region, the hydropower projects, which have been constructed and are under construction and proposed, are located in the densely populated river valleys, where terraced arable land is also available. These areas are highly prone to atmospherically triggered hazards—debris flows, flash floods, landslides, mass movements and rockfalls. Rehabilitation of the affected population has been remaining as a major challenge in all the river valley projects from the very onset of the commencement of hydropower projects in Garhwal region. This paper examines the landscape vulnerability and rehabilitation issues related to the hydropower projects in Garhwal region, Himalaya. The author collected the data from the primary and secondary sources and from the rapid field visits of the hydropower project sites. This study reveals that only micro-level hydropower projects are feasible in the fragile landscape of the Garhwal Himalaya, keeping vulnerability and rehabilitation issues in mind.

A technical discussion on microhydropower technology and its turbines

Abstract Shortage of electricity supply and other forms of modern energy is serious in most of the developing countries, contributing to low economic and social development. The situation is worse in rural communities, which are often marginalised from grid-based electricity supply because of economic and technical reasons. Currently, development agencies involved in rural power supply in developing countries recommend microhydropower (MHP) as the most robust and reliable source of off-grid power generation. However, in scholarly articles, MHP technology is not popular compared to other renewable energy technologies. This may have contributed to its limited application in off-grid power supply in some countries. Availability of scholarly literature on MHP as the case with wind and solar energies can therefore help to scale-up the level of discourse on the technology among both technical and non-technical stakeholders. In this paper, the MHP technology has been reviewed in general and the turbines in particular. General description of the technology including challenges and factors for successful implementation of the technology has been given. It has been found that technological issues are among the major challenges and that the turbine is one of the critical technological components of the MHP project. The paper has reviewed common MHP turbines, focusing on their operating principles, merits and demerits with respect to MHP and suitable operating conditions. Factors to consider when selecting suitable turbine for the site and procedure for selecting the turbine have also been outlined in the paper. The paper has been written in a tutorial manner so that the discussions therein, though technical, are shared with stakeholders of different professional backgrounds. It is hoped that the paper provides additional knowledge on MHP technology and in particular on turbines that are used in MHP supply. This can lead to better practical implementation of the technology.

Learning from experience: A survey of existing micro-hydropower projects in Ba'Kelalan, Malaysia

Rural electrification to help rural communities improve their quality of life needs to be designed in a sustainable manner with the intention of keeping village culture and environment from eroding. Micro-hydropower systems (MHS), especially run-of river schemes, are examples of renewable energy projects that, if managed well, can be socially and environmentally sustainable. This paper presents the results of a field survey conducted in Ba'Kelalan, in Sarawak, Malaysia, where several MHS have been implemented by various funding agencies using different planning mechanisms as well as different design and operational procedures. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were used in a case study comparison of two MHS in Ba'Kelalan based on criteria such as system loads, electricity tariff, the level of community involvement in the project, and the arrangements put in place for maintenance. Several barriers to sustainability were found in the operation and maintenance of the MHS due to a lack of knowledge by unskilled operators. The key lessons learnt from the case study are that sustainable development of MHS requires financial and load distribution management at the beginning of the project, as well as capacity building for both operation and maintenance personnel, as well as the community.

The potential micro-hydropower projects in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand

At present, fossil fuel energy is commonly used in developing countries, including Thailand. The tendency to use fossil fuel energy is continuously increasing, and the price of fossil fuels is rising. Thus, renewable energy is of interest. Hydropower is one of the oldest renewable energy forms known and one of the best solutions for providing electricity to rural communities. The present paper aims to determine the potential micro-hydropower sites that could provide more than 50 kW but not over 10 MW in Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Thailand. Both reservoir and run-of-the-river schemes are considered for the assessment of potential micro-hydropower sites. For the reservoir scheme, the discharge in the reservoir is employed for generating micro-hydropower electricity. This installation can be carried out without major modifications to the dam. The run-of-the-river scheme diverts water flow from the river mainstream to the intake via a pressure pipe or an open canal, which is then conveyed to the turbine via a penstock to generate electricity. The results showed that there are 6 suitable projects for the reservoir scheme and 11 suitable projects for the run-of-the-river. The maximum power load was 6000 kW and 320 kW for the reservoir and the run-of-the-river schemes, respectively. Hydropower from the run-of-the-river scheme is more suitable than hydropower from the reservoir scheme because of the many mountains in this province. The designed head for the run-of-the-river scheme is thus generally higher than that for the reservoir scheme. Because stream flow during the dry season is very low, electricity can only be produced in the wet season. This research is a pilot study to determine the potential sites of micro-hydropower projects.

Techno-economics of micro-hydro projects for decentralized power supply in India

Results of a techno-economic feasibility evaluation of few micro-hydropower (MHP) projects being planned and implemented for decentralized power supply for remote locations in India are presented. The capital cost of such projects (including cost of power evacuation and distribution system), cost per unit of rated capacity, and relative cost of different sub-systems of MHP projects in the capacity range of 10–100 kW have been analysed. Unit cost of delivered electricity for these MHP projects has been estimated. Measures of financial performance for one of the MHP projects have also been determined. Breakeven values for useful life, plant load factor, and unit cost of electricity to the user have also been estimated for the same project.