Micro hydropower plant site data

Hello,

The original plan was for my brother to go to the village and to film the four rivers so that we can assess the potential for micro hydropower plant. As always, events did not unfold as planned, but he managed to get some useful data that we can use for a rough estimate. From our analysis, we believe that at least 50kwh of reliable energy can be provided to the village people. Below are the story and the technical analysis.

The story

When I went to Guinea last December, I gave my brother a brand new working Sony camera. Last week, I asked him to go film the four rivers. He did not know how to use the camera well, so I sent him to someone in the city who is familiar with the device. Unfortunately, that person was busy running his own video recording business and did not have time to teach my brother. To avoid delays, I asked him to go to the village and take pictures of the rivers (he has learned how to take pictures with the camera).  I also gave him instructions on how to take various measures. He went there, took many pictures and measurements but forgot the most important ones; the pictures of the rivers. He did provide, however, very critical information as outlined below.

1) Of the 4 rivers, 2 have dried out. It is worth noting that Guinea has only two seasons: it rains 6 out 12 months (from May to October) and it is sunny the other half of the year. With this information, we have now ruled out the 2 rivers. We are left with 2.

2) Near one of the two rivers that still have water, he told me that there is a hospital that was built by Japanese. If you look  up bafila on google earth, you will see an isolated bright spot at the border of the curvy river. That is the river he was refering to. This is very useful information. First, I am sure the Japanese had a reason to build a hospital there and most likely, they were thinking about electricity when they chose this site. The question now is, why didn't they build a micro hydropower there? It could be that it was not technically feasible; but again, they could have at least installed a solar panel to provide electricity to the hospital. They built the hospital and left it with no electricity. My theory is that either they ran out of money or that the political environment was no longer favorable for them to continue the work. The hospital was built with foreign aid and with that, come all the political implications. I recall that one of the village sons was once the country's finance minister in that period and he probably used his influence to obtain the foreign aid. He did not last long as finance minister and the project ended after the country's president fired him. I could attempt to track down the japanese institution that built the hospital to get more information, but I run the risk of falling into the political abyss. I would rather keep my eyes on the ball. The goal at this point is to know whether or not a micro hydropower plant is possible there. Once that is known, then I can start selling the idea to the village people. They will be disappointed to hear about it now and then found out later that it is not possible.

Back to our project, I think the river with the hospital is the one to focus on; not only for the afore mentioned reason, but also because it has the potential to provide electricity to at least the hospital no matter how small the power output turns out to be.

The next step is to send someone more skilled to visit this site and do a technical feasibility study.

Technical site data collected by my brother: he told me that the river is 7 meters deep and the speed is 0.2 meter per second. After checking the river on google earth, it is about 5 meters wide where it passes the hospital. This gives me a flow of 59.5 cms. I am using this formula flow[cms]=0.85*speed*width*depth.

Since we are dealing with a low head site, the expected change in elevation is less than 3 meters. After playing aroung the area on google earth, I think that it is possible to get 1 meter vertical drop.

The system efficiency is usually between 40 and 70 percent. I will be conservative and choose 40%.

With these assumptions (1 meter head, 40% efficiency, 59.5 cms), the expected capacity of a micro hydro power plant at this site is  233.48 kwh. Factoring in a load factor of 25% (again, to be conservative), the estimated electricity supply to the village is 58.37 kwh.

Thus, it is safe to assume that the village could get at least 50 kwh. This plant could power 167 households in the village (5 lamps of 60 watts per household).

The next step is to send in an expert for further analysis.

What do you think? Please leave a comment or use the feedback form to contact us.

Below are some of the picture that my brother took:

The first picture shows my brother standing by entrance sign to the village.

The second picture shows our late dad's vacation house. He lived in the city and built this one for vacation. We intend to use it to house international experts during the project.

The third picture is an elder who still lives at the house I grew up in. He is the last living elder with whom I shared childhoold memories. He has never used Internet in his whole life.

The last picture shows the tomb of my grand mother, RIP: She never saw me after I left the country. My dad made this special sign to make sure I could find where she was buried.