Micro-Hydro

The options for home scale micro-hydroelectric systems are very limited. A few companies will custom design and build a system, assuming you have a high enough head. But their systems are not really designed for the single home site. The price is very high! The Alternate Energy Source book published by the Real Goods Trading Corporation offers two hydroelectric systems. Both of these systems are designed too operate on a minimum head of 20 feet and 100 gallons of water flow per minute. The “standard" output is 400 watts @ 12 Volts Direct Current or 700 watts @ 24 Volts Direct Current. In their book they site the following as a "typical" installation:

Site Conditions:
Head	100 feet
Flow	15 gallons per minute
Pipe Length	300 feet
Pipe Size	2" PVC
Distance To Battery	30 feet
Output	100 watts
Costs: (from a few years ago)
Pipe	$100
Turbine	$875
Regulator	$340
Batteries	$180
Wire, etc	$50
Total Costs	$1545