Water Power Technology Office, Subtopic 18b Innovative Hydropower Technologies for Low Head (Less Than 30-ft.), Cost effective, standalone hydropower for low head non-powered dams

The Water Power Technology Office identified a need for innovation of environmentally sustainable and economically competitive turbine technologies especially for non-powered dam (NPD) and new development sites. NPD opportunities typically have lower head potential. In addition, approximately 75% of identified potential new stream-reaches for hydropower development have a head of less than 30-ft. These same sites often also have smaller power densities and higher normalized costs. One of the most expensive and time consuming aspect of any hydropower installation at a natural site, be it at an NPD or greenfield, is environmental permitting and monitoring especially related to aquatic species. In order to support the aggressive non-carbon pollution goals of the DOE, turbine-generator units for lowheads need to be both cost effective and able to let fish pass through them safely. Statement of How the Problem is Being Addressed: Littoral Power Systems, Inc. (LPS) has leveraged ~ $3 million of DOE funding to develop and commercialize a family of Reakt™ turbines that are combined with a generator in a siphon or pressure box configuration that includes all necessary electronics, controls and structures to perform as a standalone generation module. These standalone systems have been offered for sale commercially for a very economical price for sites with as low as 12-ft of head. To extend these capabilities and address the holistic need for economical and fish friendly turbine-generators for low head sites, LPS proposes to team with Pennsylvania State University’s Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) to evaluate their turbine with integrated fish bypass and innovative exclusion technology for technology transfer and integration into LPS’s standalone turbine configurations. Phase I Plan: For $200,000 and twelve months, LPS, propose to partner with ARL and Clear Energy Hydro to prove the feasibility of the proposed fish friendly standalone turbine system for low-heads. Activities include characterizing a range of pilot and commercial sites to inform system requirements then assessing the sizing and scaling relationships, fish passage and exclusion performance, mechanical and hydrodynamic performance, manufacturability, cost and integration of the turbine into LPS siphon and pressure box configurations. In addition the team performs a customer discovery and strategic analysis of the most promising routes to commercialization. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: Success through Phase III of the proposed STTR will commercialize an economical, fish friendly standalone turbine system for low head sites to add power to NPDs, upgrade locations with existing hydropower and greenfield sites, applicable to mini-grid community power systems or an array of turbines for merchant grid connected sites or utility applications. The focus of the technology is to initially deliver suitable environmental and economic performance for the US power market and then export the technology internationally.