A revolutionary HYDRO POWER technology to sustainably exploit super-low-head water steps

Project Information

Turbulent

Grant agreement ID: 873765

DOI

10.3030/873765

Project closed

EC signature date 23 July 2019

Start date 1 August 2019

End date 31 December 2022

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 3 511 500,00

EU contribution

€ 2 458 050,00

Coordinated by

TURBULENT
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - Turbulent (A revolutionary HYDRO POWER technology to sustainably exploit super-low-head water steps)

Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2022-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Facts:
- There are still 940 million people without access to electricity (mostly rural population)
- 40% of the world does not have access to clean cooking energy (~3 billion people)
- 2014 UNdesa: 1child out of 3 goes to a school that lacks energy or has no electricity to study at home. (e.g. Yearly 80.000 children in South Africa are injured due to kerosene ingestion, fire,…)
- EU green deal specifies carbon reductions with min 40% (lots of countries have similar programs to fight climate change)

Decentralized renewable energy solutions are recognized as the least-cost way to providing power, especially with the upcoming micro grid infrastructure (Ref UN sustainable development scenario’s). In a global context of energy transition towards low-carbon sources and rising energy demand, hydropower is to take an important role as it is already the world’s largest source of renewable electricity generation which can provide flexibility and reliability at the same time.

The energy demand is expected to rise with 48% over the coming 30 years. The main expansion will come from Asia, Africa and Lat. America, while energy efficiency is higher on the agenda in Europe, Japan and the USA. The remaining hydropower potential is coinciding with the region of energy demand increase.

A new market study sept 2020 finds the following:
“Less than 1 MW: A growing sector with very little of its full potential being realized, micro hydro power plants can negligible impact on its environment and are an excellent source of power generation for use in the immediate vicinity of the plant. UNIDO is currently implementing these projects throughout Africa, China and India.
Gravity: This turbine coverts rotational energy generated from a liquid vortex. It is ideal for low head applications for typically small energy generation. The rotation improves water quality as well. Perfect for villages and houses next to moving water sources, this is a segment that is growing”
Ref: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/hydropower-turbine-market-8224

Recognizing the drawbacks of traditional hydropower, the International hydropower association is recognizing as an upcoming trends in hydropower involving technologies to address very low head sites and specifically fish friendly gravitational turbines like the Turbulent vortex turbine (Iha, April 2020).

The objective of this work is to become just that. An excellent decentralized microhydropower solution, without environmental impact on its surroundings. At the same time, supplying stable and reliable energy for on and off grid systems at a very competitive cost.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Turbulent has worked hard on finalizing its core technology by developing and implementing a CFD tool, develop a site evaluation tool. This work is extremely valuable to make sure we can have an efficient and low cost pre-sales technical evaluation of the potential site for a hydropower project.

A lot of work is going into the electrical solution where off grid systems, communication with other energy sources and more turbines working together as one unit, is a real challenge. The core turbine has also been improved towards a good efficiency rate, while focusing on manufacturability, quality and keeping costs low. (But keeping production within the EU). The result has been a few installed demonstrators and more to come in the pipeline. The current operational turbines are working excellent with the turbine in Bali performing as expected nearly continuous.

Covid did not help the business development and marketing situation of Turbulent, however, we are able to shift towards an excellent online brand presence with good results. All the while, Turbulent is increasing its pool of partners its working with in other countries (developers, agents,...) to get projects in the pipeline.

Next to this, it is the goal for Turbulent to also offer financing solutions in the future in order to supply a full solution for the energy users and for Turbulent to have an excellent business case and deep involvement.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We are expecting to reach a very competitive cost price for the full turbine projects, all the while combining a minimum on local impact on the environment with our projects. Combining this with the relevant political actors, we are expecting a very good uptake of our technology in the market.

Bali demonstrator plant - Turbulent