How to use a small hydro plant to power your company or community

There are many types of alternative energy resources available for us in the world and for each one there are different sorts of power plants that are used to harvest the specific type of renewable energy.

For example, the hydro energy uses the power of falling water or the power of stream or tide that are used to produce electricity. There are three types of power plants that are using the power of water, also called hydropower.

The basic type of power plant is the small-hydro and this is generally used for little communities requiring its energy needs. This type of small-hydro is also used to fulfill the energy needs for a factory or a company. Another factor that is used to categorize the hydro power plants is their output. The smallest type of hydro plant can supply up to 10MW. In some countries like the US, a hydro plant that generates up to 30MW of power, is considered small, but in Canada where hydro plant has quite a potential, a hydro plant is considered still small if generates up to 50MW of power.

There are also a few subdivisions for this kind of hydro plants, and they include:

the mini hydro plants: these can produce up to 1000 kW;

the smaller type are called micro hydro plants or small hydro plants and they can produce up to 100 kW.

These small hydro plants are quite tiny and because of this, they can be used with great success to power a company or a small community. When installed, these small hydro plants can be connected to the grid or not. In any cases, even if they are tiny, they can supply the company or the small community with plenty of power that can cover all their energy needs.

In many locations, these small hydro plants are used along with other types of renewable sources and together if they are connected to the local grid, they can even supply the grid with energy that is then used by the energy company to power other houses from different communities. In reality, these types of small hydro plants work independent from the grid and they power in a closed system only the business or the small community for which they were installed.

It is not relevant on how small or big is the output of the hydro power plant, they all have the ability to generate electricity by simply using the power of moving water. Until they have water at disposal, they will produce constant and clean energy all day long. In many cases the location of the hydro plant is established by experts, and they usually select areas with already existing dams. Other companies and experts will look after abandoned hydro sites, and they will try to purchase the area or the property in order to construct and develop a new hydro plant. The last word is always given by the size of the budget available and how important or appropriate for this type of plant is the selected area.