What do you think about decentralized and small hydro? Click here www.eightsleep.com/mattferrell to improve your sleep fitness with Eight Sleep and use my code MATT to get $200 off! If you liked this video, check out: Have we been doing Solar wrong all along? kzread.info/dash/bejne/fqWd3K6KdMyfcrA.html Corrections: 3:28 - We made a mistake between the calculation and the final script. It’s 500,000,000x more than the average faucet.

@robertheinrich2994

Ай бұрын

"Das Genie der blattlosen Vortex-Wasserkraft. Klicken Sie hier, um Ihre Schlaffitness mit Eight Sleep zu verbessern und verwenden Sie meinen Code MATT, um 200 $ Rabatt zu erhalten! " what does that mean? can you explain it? it's from your video description.

@firstlast2621

Ай бұрын

Hey Matt, great video as always! The chart at 08:03 is kind of misleading in combination with what you say. It shows total energy consumption of countries rather than the average per person while you're saying at that moment that those in the US tend to use a lot more electricity than people in other parts of the world. Now it seems as if the average Chinese citizen uses more than a US citizen but that's not true

@PetraKann

Ай бұрын

The Patent Rights to Vortex hydropower is owned by someone in Australia. There are a few prototypes and small scale Units operating in Australia and around the world.

@PetraKann

Ай бұрын

@@firstlast2621The US barely makes up 4% of the global population yet consumes 1/3 of the world's resources and emits almost 30% of the world's pollution and waste.

@stephenrickstrew7237

Ай бұрын

Would you please do an episode about the Bath County Va pumped hydro installation… it’s been quietly working away for some time now …

So, basically, anywhere there has been a water-wheel driven mill historically, we can put in a small eco-friendly hydro. Sounds like a great idea to me! I do not believe that we will ever find a "silver bullet" that will solve all of our energy needs with a single system. I think it is much more likely that we will continue to expand our options - rooftop bladeless wind turbines, micro-hydro, more efficient solar panels that are manufactured with fewer rare elements, etc.

@moos5221

Ай бұрын

regular wind turbines work well, but yeah, everything can be better ofc. i've watched plenty of washing machine hydro power videos here on youtube, it's really easy to build one yourself IF you have access to flowing water on your property (which most people sadly won't have).

@lindacgrace2973

Ай бұрын

@@moos5221 True. More applicable to east of the Mississippi rather than the semi-arid and arid west.

@meilyn22

Ай бұрын

@@moos5221 It's not that easy. The flowing water must have a certain height level or power level to produce substantial energy.

@gravitaslost

Ай бұрын

Not really even limited to that, you can chain these things together, in theory you have mile after mile of them along the same river one for every X meters of drop. Unlike wind and solar the reliability of these systems makes them actually useful at a grid scale.

@meilyn22

Ай бұрын

@gravitaslost Water doesn't work that way, dude. But okay lol.

As an old dad, I appreciate the puns. :)

@Erbmon

Ай бұрын

The dry delivery does it for me

@AnakiteMedia

Ай бұрын

Smoothly slipped in TLC - "Don't go chasing waterfalls" lyrics😂

@generaljellyroll8737

Ай бұрын

Ya, he is winning at word play

@elfshadowx

Ай бұрын

@@AnakiteMedia Stick to the rivers and lakes that you're used to

@AnakiteMedia

Ай бұрын

@@elfshadowx I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all But I think you're moving too fast

I love the idea of small hydro. There are homesteaders and off grid folks who are doing small hydro set ups to compliment solar or wind they have as well. This helps offset days of rainy weather is some areas.

@regularguy8110

Ай бұрын

Great call. I hadn't read your comment.

@terenceiutzi4003

Ай бұрын

I visited a small hydro project in BC, and the guide said they had just done a 50,000,000 upgrade, and now it can suply 1,000 homes with free electricity. So I tried to explain to him that at 1 percent interest, that is $500.00 per home with no upkeep or debt repayment! We can not afford hydro!

@yt.personal.identification

Ай бұрын

Use the hydro as storage by pumping spare during times of high solar generation. Mini pumped hydro storage.

@Ryan-ff2db

Ай бұрын

@@terenceiutzi4003 50mil isn't what I'd call small. Typically, hydro power is the cheapest form of power generation available including fossil fuels, and has been for a hundred years. Solar generation may technically be cheaper nowadays but if you include all costs including storage, transmission, and uptime, big hydro is still cheaper. Not sure about the small scale though, seems costs vary hugely.

@daxconnell7661

Ай бұрын

my dad was telling me a group of people that owned cottages near a place that had running water got approval after submitting a plan to build a micro dam to power their places and sell the excess back to the power grid when not in use. i live in BC Canada, and our government was talking about the future of micro dams instead of colossal dam sites until Site C project dam was built

I did an entire research paper on this. Basically all large hydro projects that are viable have basically been done. A simple diversion small hydro project given proper consideration of down stream flow and now stacking a bunch of them, can be very beneficial for small power needs (maybe small factories and such)

3:54 T-Boz, Left Eye, n Chilil (TLC) reference for the younger than 35.

@PrimaryIgnition

Ай бұрын

me: did he just do that? yup, confirmed

@Smitty_Werbenjagermanjenson

Ай бұрын

I'm under 35 and caught it immediately. In fact, I suspected I would hear that line in this video

@jonevansauthor

Ай бұрын

Left Eye died 22 years ago. I feel so old.

@RacerXJG

Ай бұрын

He tossed that in w/o cracking a smile. I would have had the see what I did there look on my face.

@colinkulasik1128

Ай бұрын

Yup he just slipped that in there 😂

I came across a vortex turbine years ago and loved the concept. But while I like them better than dams in several ways, I will point out that dams are not just there to generate power. They are a flood control and water storage device as well. Places that were previously unusable because of spring floods or summer droughts are now viable thanks to dams.

@kittimcconnell2633

Ай бұрын

That purpose is better served by a series of smaller connected water bodies

@benraevsky9472

Ай бұрын

True however if California increased the organic Carbon content of their agricultural lands they would be able to hold on to the water that falls on those lands, produce higher quality food with little or no inputs and have a water surplus. That increase in soil carbon would take a small change in management. Increasing soil carbon has been demonstrated to be possible with some agricultural producers increasing soil carbon content by over one percent a year. 4 years to being free from the need to siphon water. By products More and better-quality food with a lower cost to the producer. I could list all the benefits, but this is a comment on KZread.

@chucknorris277

29 күн бұрын

But muh environment and snails

I remember reading an old article about a small town in the eastern US that wanted to convert a tailrace from an old mill into a small hydro electric generator capable of supplying all the electricity needs of the town. The infrastructure was all mostly in place and the dam had been there about a century so it should have been an easy job. Enter, the government.... It took them about a decade to get through all the red tape, injunctions and studies to basically drop a turbine into an already existing structure. The biggest obstacle of doing anything decentralized is the power of the centralized resisting it.

@PatrickKniesler

Ай бұрын

Definitely the biggest hurdle Turbulent has had.

@EdBruceWRX

Ай бұрын

You mean just stop regulating and it will magically work. Ask Boeing hows thay working out?

@JoelVela13

22 күн бұрын

Regulations are there for a reason, especially when it’s related to a possibly catastrophic endeavor.

@waytoomuchtimeonmyhands

12 күн бұрын

If there were no regulations and the dam failed, they'd be running to the gov't with their hands out, complaining about how long it takes to get their disaster relief.

I literally spit my empanada out when you made that "chasing waterfalls" joke!!! 🤣🤣🤣 at 3:53

@redavni1

Ай бұрын

The whole episode script was on point. Inspired work.

I own an Eight Sleep. Huge caveat! It’s great, when it works! Go pummel the company to force them to redesign the pod to be fully self contained, electronically. No wi-fi required is necessary for its long term lifespan and reliability

@dosadoodle

Ай бұрын

Also, a hefty subscription fee is now required to access critical features. And you must subscribe when completing the purchase as well, so the listed price is a bait-and-switch. I don't trust companies that behave like this.

@kalrandom7387

Ай бұрын

Thank you I was going to look into it but I don't have home internet nor do I want them tracking through my phone

@samalmo

Ай бұрын

Plus it comes with all the downsides of a water bed worrying about punctures. Also it's like 2200$ + subscription, did not know about the wifi issues tho, seemed to good to be true anyways

@Graghma

Ай бұрын

I bought their original mattress topper on indiegogo. The sleep data told me that I never had a good night's sleep on it (seriously... I never scored above the mid 80s). Also, as a single person... the lack of the app to handle just one person instead of two is... confusing. I sent them a complaint about this shortly after getting my crowdfunded topper. They refunded the whole thing for me in response. It did mostly work well as a bed warmer afterwards. Pretty sure that isn't fixed... over ten years later.

@misterhat5823

Ай бұрын

If it was a good product, they wouldn't need YT shills to sell it.

Head is the biggest factor in all micro hydro. a 1.5 m head requiring 1.5 m3/s is a HUGE amount of water for micro hydro. But it is usually easier to find 15m head at 0.15 m3/s and get essentially the same power output. Environmental regulations typically forbid working within the water body itself, so you have to divert and return. But the percentage of flow you can divert is quite limited. Far easier to get a small volume. So, the search for sites almost always focuses on small flow, high head.

The problem is laws in the US have made small hydro illegal in most places.

@genxtech5584

Ай бұрын

No that's not the problem. Those laws are in place to prevent massive damage caused by 'most' types of hydro in the form of dams and impellers. With traditional dams that water being retained can cause significant flow changes downstream when a lot of upstream tributaries start each building their own dam. There is a need to coordinate how these systems work together for retention and flow and 99% of people who want to make use of small hydro also don't want to corporate with a central authority. Us Americans have a lot of good things going for us, but working with our neighbors usually isn't one of them.

@Fenthule

Ай бұрын

@@genxtech5584 Can honestly just boil that whole last bit down to "playing nice with others" sadly...

@utooboobnoob

Ай бұрын

@@genxtech5584This thinking is predicated on the idea of an infallible “central authority” with immutable policy / philosophy which ignores new evidence, methodology and prevailing thought. The Army Corps of Engineers should be the only example needed to poke a hole in your assertion. Central authority, government and laws are written by people. Well meaning educated people can be and are often wrong.

@genxtech5584

Ай бұрын

@@utooboobnoob LOL not at all. Immutable policy is insane. Working together with a central authority is not. I'm not arguing the policies shouldn't change. I'm saying they're in place because people only care about themselves and critically fail to think ahead. I'm not faulting us it's how we've survived to be what we are today. Your point is exactly the problem with the current system. They write policies once then expect them to stay relevant forever.

@utooboobnoob

Ай бұрын

@@genxtech5584 I agree that "immutable policy is insane". Have you ever had the pleasure of dealing with county, state and federal agencies? I have. Some of their policies outright contradict each other. The decision makers at various levels adhere to the letter of the law / code until it no longer suits them or their agency's latest mandate. I owned a piece of property with some wetlands on it. State and federal regulations made it prohibitively expensive to develop. There was also talk of potential endangered reptiles on the parcel. It was going to be onerous to develop; I tried for a few years. But then the mayor and county board stepped in. To placate their constituents, they needed to build affordable housing. My once difficult and environmentally endangered property looked great. Turns out all the state really wanted were mitigation fees to let the project commence. All of a sudden the state's environmental agency started referring to my wetlands as "junk wetlands". The talk of possible endangered reptiles ceased. Army Corps, took 11x longer, but eventually rubber stamped the project. I made out like a bandit. All's well that ends well, right? The argument could be made that these regulations and department ethos were put aside for the greater good. But in all honesty, a development half a mile down the road would have accomplished the same goal, destroyed far less "sensitive" land and been built much quicker.

Just based on this video... i think the small hydro units sounds like a good solution. The town I used to live in had a river channeled through it (cement/brick lined passage). Putting a couple of these in there would be great during the non-ice season.

@JamesArthur-qz2fm

Ай бұрын

Use small Hydro to charge a large battery

There is one "problem" with this video: you are naming the advantages of SHP, especially SETUR. But naming the limits of operation without graphing the relations is meaningless. Yes, SETUR-L can produce 43.8 to 65.7 MWh per year, in water depths of 20 meters, with a head of 1 meter, and with flow rates of 2 liters per second. But certainly not all at once. Their manual has a perfectly fine graph that shows at 2 liters per second you'd get more like 750 W, and 5 kW is their rated power at 4 liters per second. Both in a hermetically sealed environment, mind you. Depriving us of such graph is unnecessarily unscientific behavior, more akin to marketing speech than educational tech talks. Please provide us with all the accurate information, not just the highlights.

@DarkRider1768

Ай бұрын

Think the goal of the video was to get the concept in front of people that may not know about it, rather than be a comprehensive argument in favor of them.

@NFSHeld

Ай бұрын

@@DarkRider1768Yes, but his data is most likely coming from that manual anyway, and the graph is plotted directly underneath. And as it is right there, might as well just show it while talking about the numbers, instead of rolling the same few promo footage clips for the third time. It is small things like these that feel like an unforced error in an otherwise quite scientifically accurate video. You know what I mean? It's like "Perfect score if it wasn't for that small, easily avoidable thing, that appears factually wrong now."

@FloridaMeng

28 күн бұрын

This isn't a science channel lol. You can't expect that kind of quality from this guy. It is a marketing channel, hence, his name; Undecided.

I love the puns and would like to see a small counter in the corner with the number of puns intended

@CiaranMcHale

Ай бұрын

One pun in ten did.

@McStealy

Ай бұрын

Like the cinemas sins counter *ding*

@jannepeltonen2036

Ай бұрын

Nah, some of the puns contain references to e.g. 90s songs, and I kind of enjoy just spotting the ones I do spot and not spotting the ones I don't :D

That was the best blending of a TLC song into a new article 😂 I’ve heard yet. Nice writing 👍

The SETUR reminds me of a cone crusher, I was immediately thinking there's no way fish are surviving going through that, then Matt got to talking about the screens for fish and debris protection.

My dad lives near a similar diversion based small hydro. He says that you wouldn’t even know it was there unless you went off the footpath looking for the awning. Apparently it’s amazingly quiet.

I think one of the other valuable considerations with solar and smaller footprint options for hydro and wind can help decentralize the grid. We have been pushing towards greater centralization of the grid for 15+ years now and it is the wrong direction. Decentralization means that we do not need to have nearly as much long-haul transfer of power which leads to losses. It also means that existing plants do not need to scale.

@Erik-pu4mj

Ай бұрын

I think both directions are worth pursuing and, in fact, must be pursued. We'd like to generate energy from a bunch of locations, distribute it as-necessary, and store the excess--all as efficiently as possible. Even if every roof and window generated energy, I expect that urban areas will still need centralized energy generation and storage for both efficiency and cost reasons. So, I think it's important to develop technology for centralized grids that allow many different energy generation and storage methods to 'play well together'--an effort I mostly hear in the context of centralized 'smart grids.' TL;DR: I believe that, like the many different types of renewable energy generation, the best solution uses many different scales of each technology as appropriate.

@kaitlyn__L

Ай бұрын

@@Erik-pu4mjexactly. Continent wide interconnected smart microgrids is the answer

@benraevsky9472

Ай бұрын

Its the standard march of businesses. The industry starts out decentralized and as the most competitive producers gain a competitive advantages and economies of scale increase, they push out or buy the other competitors. This trend will continue until they are so large that they cannot fulfill the function they were started on or the business environment changes. Large organizations are not as nimble as smaller ones and change can be too slow to adapt. Collapse follows and the industry begins to decentralize. It is a very common phenomenon in Nature. During the collapse other entities that have a small competitive advantage due to the rate at which they can adapt move in to take advantage of the Niche.

Really happy you touched on this again. I think about small hydro from time to time.

The timing of this is amazing, i have been looking into hydro to develop a project in one of the locations i oversee, this is brilliant. Thanks Matt

That first genius one with the ball, the setur, looks like an incredible fish squishier.

@MonkeyJedi99

Ай бұрын

It does seem like a cousin to a gyratory rock crusher.

@Mitakskia

Ай бұрын

its not a squisher, its a massager

Something seems off with the numbers on the Brazilian dam. If 62.200 m^3/s is 500.000 times the faucet then the faucet would spew out about 0,1 m^3/s which is still 100l/s. You have some mighty faucets in the US.

@quifred

Ай бұрын

I was thinking the same thing.

@jtleinbach

Ай бұрын

Agreed. Keeping things in US terms, 985,890,099 gallons/min for the dam divided by 500,000 would be 1,972 gallons/min for a facuet. That's pretty spot on 1000x what it really is. Looks like someone slipped 3 decimal places somewhere in there.

@scania9786

Ай бұрын

@@jtleinbach probably when they did m3 to liter part of the m3 to gallon conversion

@UndecidedMF

Ай бұрын

Sorry about that! We transposed a decimal. It’s 500,000,000x more than the average faucet. I’ve added a correction to video description.

@cybernetic2024

Ай бұрын

Transposed 3 decimals. The problem isn't that you made a mathematical error, the problem is that it is so obvious and yet it wasn't picked up - so how can I trust anything else that you have said?

Combine solar with a reservoir for a water turbine - pump water uphill during daylight, get electricity at night from the turbine

The designs mentioned remind me of the Romanian 100+ year old valtoare/vâltori (whirlpool), which is a water-powered washing machine. For it, water is channeled into a large wooden funnel-like barrel. The funnel has gaps wide enough for water to flow out, but not wide enough for the cloth to slip through. The force and angle of the water hitting the wood creates a spiral of water, which tumbles the clothes thrown inside. Just some random info for everyone.

Loved the word play - particularly, “no need to go chasing waterfalls!”

Every time I see one of those Turbulant promotional videos I’m struck by how much of the potential energy of those installations is being wasted by all the turbulence in their water flow.

@innercityprepper

Ай бұрын

not as much wasted energy as not having anything there collecting some of the energy....

I appreciate your commitment to the pun. Also, a small scale hydro system like this is my ideal choice for off grid energy. The turbulent flow design is my favorite, though probably overkill for a single family home - maybe ideal for a small community.

As a small team that doing a university project on how to get to the point of %100 percent renewable energy usage on solomon islands, i find these turbines really useful ! I think i might add them to our project to generate power on small islands that has rivers

Dam thats good 👍 small compact rubber coated blades great idea, my late father had a cottage with land & a lake, I think how much power 🔋 could have been generated at the outlet of that lake, Hydroelectric Wind & enough room for solar, But in the middle of the countryside not many jobs, so we eventually moved, certainly that place had a lot of potential 👍 I need another one like it as I'm retired now !

I’m glad this video got the TLC it deserved.

I think these are a great idea, I'm a fan of hydro, it's how my power is produced. I could see a smaller system like that snail one would be so good around riverways, and very environmentally friendly so I'm all for them.

Matt, nice video. I'd like to comment on your channel, overall: I appreciate that you do not act condescending towards people who have higher levels of skepticism toward "clean" power technologies. Your demeanor and offering more balanced analysis helps make the info more accessible and compelling rather than the sometimes smug or even confrontational approaches I've seen on a few other channels. Thank you.

@UndecidedMF

Ай бұрын

Appreciate it. I try to be as inclusive as I can in the approach.

What's better about saying "SHP" than "small hydro"? Initialisms and acronyms...

@julianshepherd2038

Ай бұрын

It's cool, obviously you are not.

@AquilaSornoAranion

Ай бұрын

@@julianshepherd2038 Obviously. I'd like to be more like you

@moos5221

Ай бұрын

@@AquilaSornoAranion try harder please

@AquilaSornoAranion

Ай бұрын

@@moos5221 Just so I can also tell others who are not cool, what do you cool people think is so good about speaking in initialisms?

@petergerdes1094

Ай бұрын

He probably wrote the script and when you write you often don't count syllables.

I can not believe you made an entire video on dams without mentioning Chinas Three Gorges dam and how its sheer size changed earths rotation, Hows that for consequences of going big. Love your videos, Gr. Mezz

@frankkroondijk586

Ай бұрын

that is a myth

@Mezzy1992

Ай бұрын

@@frankkroondijk586 “In 2005, NASA scientists calculated that the shift of water mass stored by the dams would increase the total length of the Earth's day by 0.06 microseconds and make the Earth slightly more round in the middle and flat on the poles.” -NASA Details Earthquake Effects on the Earth Jan. 10, 2005

@Erik-pu4mj

Ай бұрын

@@frankkroondijk586 Doesn't appear to be a myth; the effect is just tiny. Quick Wikipedia search: "In 2005, NASA scientists calculated that the shift of water mass stored by the dams would increase the total length of the Earth's day by 0.06 microseconds and make the Earth slightly more round in the middle and flat on the poles." NASA used this as an example to compare the "barely noticeable" effect that all earthquakes have on Earth's rotation.

I think semantics is really important on this, Matt. It's not that the technologies are unreliable because they're old, it's because they weren't designed to work this long.

Hey Matt, great video! Yeah I think this would be a real boon for farms and small communities. Micro grids. For countries and cities it seems like big hydro makes good sense. I live in Ontario, Canada and we went big on Nuclear while our neighbouring provinces like Manitoba, Quebec and Newfoundland went big on Hydro. Both systems do work but Hydro seems to be the cheaper option in the long run. We have so many unpowered existing dams and I think that those dams are the lowest hanging fruit in terms of adding more power sources to our grid. Then we still do have loads of potential hydro dam locations that we could add in here as well. I'd say that on balance large scale hydro is the way to go when possible and adding fish spawning ladders is the thing to do with dams going forward

Awesome TLC reference 😂

Dam, I enjoy the constant family friendly swearing in this video.

@jurgennicht4626

Ай бұрын

No dam! That's the point of small turbines 😉

@Rathmun

Ай бұрын

@@jurgennicht4626 So you don't give a dam.

@mikep3226

Ай бұрын

The town I live in has a real problem with having the street sign for Dam Road stolen. They keep replacing it with better and stronger mountings, though. It's a dead end road that leads past the "Glory Hole" (the overflow drain in the shape of a morning glory) to the base of the Harriman Dam. Getting the pun engine going.

@Smo1k

Ай бұрын

@@mikep3226 Dam Road to Glory Hole? If I'd put it on a map for a roleplaying game, the players wouldn't have believed it 😆

Theoretically for a diversion type hydroelectric plant, they could install flow controls across a portion of the river's width to help regulate power supply without impacting wildlife that much. They wouldn't be changing the flow rate of the river, just what fraction of it flows through the plant, ideally setting aside a certain fraction that it cannot take, thereby preventing it from actually stopping fish migration.

Yaaaay!!!!! 😀 Thank you, Matt, for doing a small hydro video! I've been waiting for this for years! ❤

@nathansmith7153

Ай бұрын

It's worthless

Imagine undoing the damage Dams made with these devices. Just a parallel series of small hydro where you need it.

@major__kong

Ай бұрын

But you can't parallel enough of them to make something like the output of Hoover Dam. They would be supplemental power not base power.

@KnugLidi

Ай бұрын

The dam creates the reservoir (reserve of water) to ensure 100% uptime. If you go without a reservoir (called a run of river setup) then your uptime shrinks making your output far,far less. You cannot replace hydroelectric dams with these devices. Small or micro hydro is all about utilizing the high head/small flow or low head/large flow opportunities that exist.

@Withnail1969

Ай бұрын

You're delusional if you think hydro dams can be replaced with this garbage.

@elmurcis1

Ай бұрын

Big dams are too valuable for grid in places that has option to have them. I live 40 km from 40 meter 850MW hydro dam (there are 2 more downstream main river with 12m/300MW and 18m/450 MW power ) and just from water flow rate in river I can tell price for power at moment (dry summer like 400, peak snow melt over 4000 some years, average around 650 m2/s). And they do work all year round no matter ice conditions (meter of ice over deep water storage doesn't matter that much vs meter over small one - might still work but with risk). Same time - for off-grid/remote areas in warmer climate they look decent option for sure.

@Erik-pu4mj

Ай бұрын

If only... But hey, at least they can help prevent further ecological damage! And better a supplemental power source than none.

A small tributary of the river Thames close to where I had 34 watermills recorded in the early 19th century on a nine mile stretch.

@peteglass3496

Ай бұрын

The lower River Lea was tidal up to Hackney Wick [today's 2012 Olympic Park] so tide mills operated at least as far as Three Mills just up from Bow. Not sure whether the tide could be usefully used higher than that. Today the tide is stopped where the Lea joins the Thames and essentially all the Lea catchment's water is used to supply London.

@philiptaylor7902

Ай бұрын

@@peteglass3496 Salt water brings a whole load of problems of its own, principally corrosion. But there are plenty of locks further up onto the Regent's Canal. Perhaps turbines like this could be integrated into the locks, they have a perfect hydrostatic head, like the weirs and locks all along the Thames.

The quality of the videos you produce is always amazing. Thanks for this introduction to small hydro... now I want a Turbulent turbine! :D

We got a small hydro installation where I am just outside a local university, visible from a bridge going in to the town center region. It looks nice. I've always been saying for the longest time that these things could be dotted all over the place, even across the same river a few times (although you also have to consider the density of the land, slowly the river down could result in more water absorption, so ideally you'd do that higher up the river, and maybe even consider lining the ground to avoid some of that extra absorption) It boggled the mind why it wasn't a thing when we had been using waterwheels for so long. The same could even be done with wind to capture some of the lesser wind currents that are more present in every day life, just as an extra boost to the power grid. Yanking some of that extra wind energy out of the air could also make things a little more tolerable in the weather department, not to dissimilar to how trees function. Wind, however, is a little more complicated, but still very doable. As long as you prevent the thing from being ravaged by overloading from heavy wind currents, you'll be fine.

Hmm so a standard faucet can now flow 1971 gallons per minute. 985,890,099 gallons per minute / 500,000 standard faucets = 1971 gallons per minute. Looks like you are off by 3 orders of magnitude. Hopefully your other facts aren't off that far.

@UndecidedMF

Ай бұрын

Yep, we messed things up after we did the calculation. It ended up getting written incorrectly in the script as the word million instead of billion ... and we didn't catch it. 🤦 I've added a correction to the description & comments.

Thanks for keeping us up to date with current information.

my suggestion is a closed loop system using a small reservoir with a larger reservoir underneath it with a pump moving water or Antifreeze to top and also using a radiator system to dissipate heat build up. just something rattling around in my head. I used the Turbulent system for reference to configure a shipping container layout with side vents for radiator placement and side air flow

Thanks, I live in the UK on the site of a former water powered flour mill, the stream is still there, but culverted under my garden, I would love to re use the water power, but it is just too complicated and beaurocratic to consider. Water power beats wind power every time, but wind is everywhere and water is not.

Seems a better filter is needed. Hoover Dam has huge filterproblems.

I think small hydro is a great niche solution for rural/remote areas with a steady water source. I live in the Ozarks, where there are many streams where it would assist in energy supply.

Thanks for highlighting the advantages of small-scale hydro energy - I've been watching this tech for a few years now. There's one place water will ALWAYS flow - inside high flow water pipes... conduit hydro. Every community or region should be doing a geo-physical asset analysis and applying whatever renewable energy tech that makes the most sense. If each community / region / state does this, grid resilience will be achieved - hopefully cost effectively too. It's estimated that around 80% of people will live in cities by 2050'ish so it makes sense that solutions to socio- economic challenges must come from cities (such as food & water security, affordable housing, energy, waste management, various mobility options, awa social services & support etc). In many parts of the world this means putting solar panels EVERYWHERE (on every rooftop, shading every street & car park, awa lining highways) supported by community energy storage. Other options might include mini & micro hydro, conduit hydro, on & offshore wind, geothermal, on shore wave power for coastal communities etc.

Wow, just wow on the TLC Reference... thanks for that I do think the small hydro power plants like these two would be good for rural areas, and maybe in cities as well if you think about ones like LA, where the LA river maybe a good place depending on the drop/head of the river for areas that solar, and wind can't cover, or it is cost prohibited to install them.

@charlestaylor3195

Ай бұрын

LA produces one billion gallons of wastewater a day, every single day. Need I say more.

"It's as tall as six christs stacked on top of one another ..." Man, Americans will use literally anything but the matric system!

Combined with stored hydro, this technology opens out options for more arid areas like Australia. Great video.

If you put a farm dam on a hillside valley that is not a permanent stream, you're not going to affect fish movement at all. Run a micro-hydro between your dam and whatever permanent stream that hillside drains into, and you can have your hydro and let the fish swim in it too. Small farm dams are much easier to get right than big hydro river dams. You just need enough catchment and enough storage to get through a typical dry spell for that area, possibly backed up by rooftop solar for abnormally long droughts.

your recent videas offer a multitude of languages, which is great. but your videos want to always play back in german (live in a german speaking region), which is annoying. i have all my language setting on english but it still wants to force me to the german dub. does anyone know a solution, other than having to change it every time i watch a video? (i already tried to change my location, it does not help)

@jonevansauthor

Ай бұрын

KZread is automatically dubbing the audio into other languages? That's super sophisticated but incredibly annoying and silly if they don't let the user control which version they get. I hope you find a solution. There might be a Chrome extension that can help?

@Leminge42

Ай бұрын

@@jonevansauthori don't use chrome :/ but i might look into extensions. Yt does have issues with langiuages for a long time. it also activates subtitles randomly. my region speaks german and i speak fluently german and english and i don't need subtitles or dubbing. but thats impossible to do in the settings :/

@diktomat

Ай бұрын

It also randomly translates titles for a long time, leading one to click on seemingly German videos just to get something one doesn’t understand. (Leaving this comment just to hopefully get notified if someone answers with a solution to this problem I also face…)

R.I.P. Aaliyah.

I don't know how you can drop SO many puns, jokes and song lyrics with a straight face. Matt, you are The Best !!!

Watching some hydro turbines just remind me how an old washing machine (with the right stator) can be turned into a turbine a used for smaller off-grid applications (good way to recycle too) and you can also use the same stators for wind turbines if your keen. Think we are progressing in the right way as we need multiple factors to survive

EVERYTHING should now be measured in Christs.

@bondvagabond42

18 күн бұрын

As a machinist, I feel I would get more use out of the millichrist.

@harrisonsumner8568

17 күн бұрын

Hear hear 🎉

I really like the idea of diversifying energy sources and making it on a smaller scale then dams. It also has the benefit of needing a lot less infrastructure to transsport the energy, since you would be living basically next to it. That seems a lot more efficient than placing high-voltage pylons from one big dam throughout the rainforest...

Great job Matt. Been following you for years and you never disappoint.

Interesting Vid. Would be interesting to dive deeper into the different turbine technologies, categorize the turbine types, quantify the existing market-shares, and elaborate on problems with conventional turbines. Then you can link what the different issues are, and what these companies do to address each

Thanks for the video Matt!

Several good examples of these small hydro systems from over 100 years ago can be found in the coastal California mountains and Sierra Nevada Range foothills. I have always believed they were a fantastic application for generating small-scale, local electric power.

I've know about small hydro for years, but never knew they could be this efficient. I was walking in the Sierra Nevadas in Spain a decade ago, and many of the old Islamic-era acequia irrigation channels are still channeling a lot of water for many kilometers while slowing winding down the slopes. They pass a lot of cottages, some still use, and I was wondering while some sort of micro hydro, enough to power at least a house wasn't being installed, even in the long stretches between cottages.

I think the important word in that is "decentralized". Not just globally, but in the US as well. Anything that reduces the need for a national grid is in our best interest long term. Whether it's small form hydro, biogas, hydrogen, solar, wind, geothermal, whatever... Moving to a place where our people are more self-sufficient is a net benefit overall.

One of my dreams is to own a piece of mountainous property with running water attached, and this is part of why. I've wanted this for as long as I can remember, like maybe 40 years, because I knew about sawmills, grain mills, etc.

As someone who has a consistent water flow on my property, unfortunately without much head, about 6 feet max, the turbulent design caught my interest a few years back. Sadly they do not make anything small enough for me to take advantage of as my typical water flow is in the 7-10 CFS range. I have looked at other options and will eventually settle on one but I just liked the turbulent design.

You are awesome Brother God bless you and your family

I'd be fascinated with how some of these could be fitted in with old infrastructure. In this instance I'm talking canals - Yes during summer they're likely to have issues but for the other 50 weeks of the year they'd be fine in the UK - especially where there's plenty of locks with bypasses. Loads of spots for small hydropower to be introduced.

i've seen turbulent power plants in person they have worked years without any issues and provide a stable source of power for many people.too bad some places have banned making your own power

In 1902 were in Bohemia in middle Europe at least 8000 water mills. There is huge potential to rebuild them again this way. Thank you for this video 👍

I sold micro hydro overshot pelton wheels in Alaska. 1981 to 1982, this system works especially when combined with other alt. Energy generators such as solar or the genset ÷ system. Independent power is achievable.

Learnt a lot new!! Thank you for this video!

One plus that you didn't mention, or perhaps I missed, is that small hydro can be locally owned by those it serves. Giving vested interest in a way that is tricky with any large power plant.

It just happens to be that we have a running well in our property where water flows all year around and just to days ago I installed a little water Turbine there. It might not be much but a couple of kilowatt hours per day good make a difference

Great video Matt ! Been thinking of micro hydro for a while.. hope to find a spot with a small stream..

I'm convinced that Matt writes the puns first, then comes up with the content to fit.

I'm a strong believer in the "all of the above" approach to energy. These devices won't provide that much energy because the number of places where they can be installed is always going to be limited. The notion that we should limit ourselves to what these kinds of devices can provide is wrong. I'm also curious about how many years these devices have to operate to generate as much energy as was required to manufacture them. I wouldn't be surprised if they have to operate for a long time to break even on energy production. The value of these devices is the chance to de-centralize. The more de-centralized our energy production is, the less vulnerable we are to natural or man-made disasters. If someone is in a position to install one of these, he can have energy that doesn't rely on the grid. That's an advantage sometimes.

When I lived in Connecticut, there were lots of old mills that ran off some form of old hydro to power for the old linen mills, but most have been converted to apartments. I always thought it would be an excellent opportunity for these facilities to have back-up power in the case of a snow storm or such, but he whole ice issue is a fear. I think in many niche opportunities it offers some capability that just wasn't noticed before.

Oh hey, I've seen Turbulent before! The real advantage of their design/system is that it's extremely low maintenance. They had an install in Latin America iirc that had only been cleaned with a brush a couple times in 8 years, when the water goes low. I bet it's still going strong.

When you said 'water height is, well, fluid', that immediately made me think about ocean beaches and waves. If you were to compare the height of a cresting wave to a beach, most of the time, the wave is higher. Sometimes you get big waves... so... what if you built a structure on an unusable beach where the height of the collection is based on the average yearly height of the waves and then pipe the exhaust water to the beach to be released back into the ocean. So, you've got 2 meter waves (roughly 6'), you set up the collection at 5'. You'll collect water at the top of the wave, have it go through the system, and then pipe back to the beach where the water is lower. Forever renewable so long as there are waves in the ocean.

Thanks for mention the case (ITAIPU) from Brazil. Greetings!

Ty for covering hydro power. I mentioned it to you awhile back as did couple other thousand.

13:08 it took them less than a day to install the turbine... on an already built enclousure . Always add up every part of a project, for clear understanding. Love this tech, especially the part were it can become its own grid without having to be near a mayor established electrical grid, that I think is its biggest pro

I'd be tempted to combine a local solar panel set, wind generator and one of these micro-turbines. Add a small battery bank and it could become very reliable for remote suitable sites. Great video.

I really loved this video! I live on along the Mississippi river with the only damn that produces hydro power and I think they could use this to turn the locks into power producers where they head wasn't strong enough for big hydro.

"We don't got to go big or go home. Damn it" literally one of my favorite quotes

To this day I'm still amazed that the eastern side of the Appalachians don't have much small hydro. There used to be a fair bit when electricity generation was starting out, and you can still see the ruins of those original plants on large rivers (New River around Boone, NC is the specific one that comes to mind for me). There are a number of small streams, rivers, and waterways that would easily fit the scope of the small hydro technologies you showcased. I suspect that the issue is that there just isn't a motive force large enough to create space for it that would be proof against the larger entrenched energy producers in the USA.

I really love the Turbulent vortex generators. They look like they would be a great option for rural communities and third world countries that would benefit from smaller, more resilient infrastructure

Remember the old saying, "Not to put all your Eggs in one Basket", this is still true today. It is better to have lots of small power plants, than one Huge greedy outfit. Greed being why big companies do this: money, money, money, that's all they think about! Small is beautiful. Plus if everyone had their own power plant, it would be simple to help others, if they had a problem with theirs!

I have been thinking about the possibility of a solution like this. This will be very useful for developing countries with apple river water. Thanks Matt

well done on this. Myself and 4 neighbors are off grid and this tech is interesting as an alternative to solar. Solar it self is nice and low maintenance, it's the storage that is an issue. It would be nice to utilize our small creek for consistent power.

Thanks for the multi language subtitles, Matt!!!

I have had my eye on small hydro for a while now. I really think that it can be huge filling in many renewable gaps, especially that blades one.

I think the coolest part of this turbine, is the ability to allow larger object through the turbine. It's not going to get hung up on pebble flowing through it. Conventional turbines are very precise and picky.

I have a 13 kW solar system and a 5 kW grid export, and am looking at adding some big batteries or perhaps even pumped hydro storage using 2 x 5,000 gallon tanks that I already have in in place - just need some plumbing, a pump / generator, and some wiring. I can add more water tanks and solar panels when needed. Pump water from bottom tank to top tank during the day when my solar panels are producing a lot more than 5 kW (my export limit), and let water run down hill from top to bottom tank during evenings and night to generate electricity for my use and to export to the grid. My aim is for my solar system with batteries and/or pumped hydro storage to export 5 kWh to the grid 24/7, enough to supply 3 houses plus me. If I can also upgrade my electricity supply to 3 phase power (will cost about $100K to run extra power lines and change metering), then I cam export 15 kW to the grid (instead of 5 kW), and will upgrade my system further (more tanks, more solar panels, etc) to export 15 kW to the grid 24/7 - enough to supply 8 houses and me with clean, rnewable energy. I'm just 1 guy on my own, doing what I can to help the environment.

One of the problems with these systems is that they need vast quantities of water to generate the amount of power they do. If you don't have that amount of flow, they are not going to work. Most people don't live by a large stream with that amount of flow. These are all displacement type turbines relying on water volume going past the rotor to generate power. Impulse type turbines require more head, but less flow and are suitable anywhere you have lower flow but a larger drop. So for example if you have a flow of 1 cfs dropping 150 feet, the energy potential is 12.5 kw. the same amount of water dropping 5 feet will generate 425 W. so for the examples in the videos where the head is 5 feet, you need 30 times the water to generate the same amount of power.