Innovative hydrokinetic power plant
Innovative hydrokinetic power plant includes facilities for pneumatic power storage that may be used to refuel non-polluting vehicles and water crafts. Specifically, the disclosure relates to a facility which generates and stores electrical power from a number of non-polluting, renewable sources, such as water current, solar and wind sources. Most uniquely, the disclosure is situated in close proximity to and, in large part, on a generally man-made structure such as an industrial facility (possibly vacant), a bridge (possibly abandon), highway overpass system, or even an industrially polluted brown-field, in short, an area open to the sun and wind. Fullest potential of the disclosure is acquired when the facility is co-located adjacent to a body of moving water.
Pontoon hydroelectric power stations on the river course
The efficiency of the new technology
The generation technology includes radical new hybrid water wheels that
also use gravity. The centuries-old waterwheels (also on the Danube as grain
mills) have fixed radial blades that are submerged up to 12% of their radius
and the efficiency about 13%. At deeper submersion, they become
extremely ineffective because they begin to throw out a lot of water with
the blades when they come out of the water, which holds and stops their
rotation.
We therefore developed a hybrid waterwheel with fixed radial overwater cantilevers terminating in elongated movable blades cantilevered on uncomplicated mechanisms. A mechanism keeps the blades, instead of radial, always in vertical positions, under and above the water. This technology has at least several significant advantages:
1. The blades enter the water vertically downwards with their narrowest side and therefore the useless drag in the water is minimal.
2. The blades emerge from the water vertically upward with their narrowest side with minimal unhelpful drag and virtually no water discharge.
3. The shaft of the hybrid wheel and all components of the pontoon hydroelectric are above the water. Only the movable blades (1) are dipped periodically.
4. The revolutions of the hybrid wheels are times higher than those of known water wheels at the same load in comparable water conditions.
5. The blades are immersed at about 45% of the wheel radius, instead of 12% for the familiar water wheels, which allows them to work in a 3.5 times deeper water layer, which increases their efficiency from 13 to about 45%. The overall efficiency of electricity production is about 40%. Given that the kinetic energy of the current and gravity are free and the capital costs are low, the resulting electricity is the cheapest possible. For example, about 3 times cheaper than 5 MW wind turbines and 4 times cheaper than photovoltaic parks.
