Kinetic Micro Hydro System for electrification of rural areas.

Informations projet

SMART Slowflow

N° de convention de subvention: 811624

DOI

10.3030/811624

Projet clôturé

Date de signature de la CE 9 Mai 2018

Date de début 1 Juin 2018

Date de fin 30 Novembre 2018

Financé au titre de

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Coût total

€ 71 429,00

Contribution de l’UE

€ 50 000,00

Coordonné par

SMART HYDRO POWER GMBH
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SMART Slowflow (Kinetic Micro Hydro System for electrification of rural areas.)

Période du rapport: 2018-06-01 au 2018-11-30

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

Today 1.3 billion humans (mainly living in Africa, India and Latin America) still lack access to electricity. For these people, the lack of access to energy goes along with marginalization from their nation’s social, political and economic life. As the specific costs for energy (diesel, batteries or even firewood) in those remote regions are often much higher than in industrialized nations, continuous or productive use of energy is hardly affordable. Slow Flow is a perfect solution in these markets. Smart Hydro Power Gmbh’s existing product is a kinetic micro hybrid integrated system composed by a hydro-turbine, a photovoltaic (PV) plant, batteries and energy management system, in order to generate solutions for remote and water-abundant regions by connecting the hydrokinetic potential watercourses to smart grid solutions. The new kinetic turbine, called Slow Flow, which has been subject to the grant, is smaller, less expensive and easier to handle than the existing turbine and is therefore addressing a broader market.

Slow Flow is aimed for two types of markets: i) energy driven markets where rural electrification is the major segment (such as Africa, Latin America, and Asia) and ii) in the leisure European B2C market. Smart Hydro Power have already implemented many projects in Nigeria, Africa, two Latin American countries (Peru and Colombia) and in two Asian countries (India and Indonesia). Smart Hydro Power wants to focus on market segments such as governmental and non-governmental organizations active in emergency aid, as these organizations play a major role in the aforementioned countries.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

The SME-Instrument Phase 1 project constituted the first step towards the achievement of the abovementioned targets and was focused on the following main activities:
1. Selection of the MVP and its preliminary design.
2. Bill of Material definition and Cost of Production quantification both for the MVP prototype and for industrial manufacturing.
3. Definition of the business model and of the go-to-market strategy.
4. Update of the market analysis for the utility scale stationary application and Energy Service Companies sectors.
5. Definition of the work plan for the next development phases.
6. Supply & Value chains definition, meetings with key partners.
7. Customer Validation.
8. Business analysis - Porters’s 5 forces.

The most important outcomes are listed below:
• Smart Hydro Power has worked towards ameliorating the blades, float and turbine of the Slow Flow system with the turbines being the MVP. They have worked towards standardization and maximization in order to reduce the weight and increase the speed and efficiency in order to provide constant energy to populations in rural areas.
• A complete Bill of Material and Cost of Production (CoP) evaluation has been performed.
• The validation plan will be based on the i) product characteristics and ii) the target market that will be based on energy-driven markets where rural electrification is a major problem and the EU leisure market.
• It has been clarified that focus has to be kept on rural electrification and emergency aid as the existing European leisure market is small and strongly dominated by PV-based product. Eco-agro-holiday farms and rural weekend homes (specifically in Northern and Southern Europe) have been identified as interesting niche markets.
• The market framework is extremely favourable. The renewable energy systems is a multi-billion booming market that will reach 2153 B$ by 2025 with the hydro & ocean power market currently holding 63% of the share.
• Africa, Asia, and Latin America are locations where Smart Hydro Power has implemented projects. So far, the results have been promising and have enabled the company to improve the product for commercialization.
• A draft of the project budget and development plan has been provided.
• Value and supply chains have been defined and studied. The main suppliers have been contacted to fix the supplying cost for MVP fabrication. Key technological/financial partners have been engaged.
• Customers have been contacted and met.
• A preliminary Risk Analysis has been performed and a Risk Mitigation strategy developed to demonstrate how Smart Hydro Power will manage its risk profile.

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

While large size hydropower for high water heads is a well-established technology, with many turbines proposed in the worldwide market (Pelton, Turgo, Kaplan, Francis, cochlea turbines, undershot and overshot hydraulic wheels), the mini and micro zero-head hydropower (HP) for kinetics flow exploitation is a new and emerging sector with only few solutions reached the market. Finding new and innovative turbine shapes able to lead to high efficiency and productivity but at the same time assuring low installation costs and operation reliability is the main scope of companies, which are developing micro-HP technologies.

Slow Flow’s expected results are that:
• Slow Flow new design allows reaching the lowest cut-in speed, thereby increasing the yearly productivity and allowing the Autonomous Full Service (24 h a day operation) micro grid implementation.
• The turbine shape allows to be applied in heavy debris environment and requires only a low depth for river/canals, strongly increasing the application potentialities.
• The final price achievable is the lowest in the market and, coupled with the high productivity and almost no need for maintenance, leads to a breakthrough levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) value below 25 c€/kWh which had been defined as threshold for market competitiveness.

The Slow Flow project reached the main objective to provide a clean and affordable source of energy, while replacing conventional power systems such as diesel generators, to provide solutions for isolated and water-abundant territories by connecting its micro hydrokinetic system to smart grid solutions, thereby providing electricity for rural areas.

Slow Flow turbine data sheet.