Micro-Hydro: Energy Conscious Retreat Center near Asheville

We are moving ever closer to finalizing our plans for a micro-hydro system that will power our new Laughing Waters Community Center and Retreat Site. Since we are fortunate to have year round stream running through the property, we are able to take a portion of this water to run a micro hydro turbine. (The remaining water is need in the stream to keep the trout happy!)

We have been studying and learning for the past two years and hope to be able to start construction next month. In future blogs i can explain all the components that go into a system like this including calculating the water flow, pressure, size of pipes, type of turbine, type of inverter, batteries, and grid tie. Since we plan to both sell power to the grid and draw on the grid and be able to run the building off-grid, all that adds more complexity to the design. There is lots of expertise available on solar systems, but much harder to find for micro-hydro. But we are determined and slowly it is all coming together. More later.