Distributed Hydropower Microgrids for Creating Energy Resiliency in Agriculture

Hydrokinetic (HK) power production is an attractive energy resource for agricultural communities located near existing water conduits, both domestically and internationally. Being able to leverage and develop these existing conduits through the deployment of distributed energy resources is a huge opportunity for decarbonizing the agricultural industry and providing low-cost reliable energy. In order to truly maximize the potential benefits of the system to the agriculture industry a more hybrid energy approach, considering other Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), would need to be considered in an effort to maximize the energy potential of existing water infrastructure. Further to this, there is a growing demand for resiliency in the Agricultural space. Due to climate change, wildfires, and power outages across the rural western United States an estimated $43 billion dollars in losses have been incurred during 2022 according to NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Deployment of microgrids to support ongoing operations either continuously or in critical outage is urgently needed. One of the major challenges facing the deployment of microgrid systems is the need for some form of reliable base load which is typically some form of fossil fuel generation (Diesel or Natural Gas) which does not meet the nations needs for clean renewable energy and reducing the carbon footprint in the agriculture which makes up nearly 10 percent of the nation’s carbon emissions. The primary innovation to be pursued in the proposed work is that of integrating a Hydrokinetic Turbine with storage and other generating assets in water conveyance infrastructure, such as irrigation canals and conduits, applications that would enable harvesting of energy during peak solar and wind hours while leveraging to consistent production of Emrgy’s Distributed Hydropower system to create a Microgrid providing critical energy when needed. The specific technical challenges to be pursued will be an electrical (DC-Bus) and controls integrated hybrid energy system maximizing potential energy and minimizing costs as well as developing and demonstrating the capability of a distributed hydropower microgrid. Emrgy, Inc. will partner with ProsumerGrid and Idaho National Labs to develop a MHK Microgrid System and fully quantify the overall value and impact of such a system as well as its efficacy in providing reliable low-cost energy to the agricultural sector. The general scope of this Phase II effort will include detailed design of a Distributed Hydropower Microgrid system and deployment as a pilot with Reclamation District 1004 as the end-user. Validation and testing of the system will be conducted to verify its efficacy and value. Upon successful completion of Phase II, the project team will construct, deliver, and test a prototype in the community, and based on Emrgy’s deep experience in MHK device manufacturing the team expects that the hybrid system can achieve TRL 8 through the Phase II implementation.