A New Era in Home-Owner Hydro

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Water into Gold

Hydropower is one of the oldest forms of alchemy, a way to convert falling water into wealth. Historically, that wealth has been measured in many coins: milled flour, sawed wood, and pumped water. Today, the currency of choice is most often the kilowatt-hour.

By almost every measure, water power is the world's best energy resource. What's cleaner? Cheaper? Even among renewables, hydro is a head above. Falling water is more reliable than the wind, and it works at night, too, unlike the sun. Per dollar invested, a hydro system will typically produce three to 10 times more energy than a photovoltaic (PV) or wind power system.

Hydro's disadvantage? It discriminates against the many in favor of the few. The wind and sun are democratic: everyone gets some. Water does not spread its blessings; it concentrates them. You either have water or you don't. And most don't.

For this reason, hydropower has always been viewed as a finite resource. We humans can mine more coal or build more PV panels, but it's not in our power to make rivers or invent streams. Today, however, thanks to the inspired tinkering of a handful of ingenious engineers, the landscape has changed. No new rivers have been created, but the horizon has moved nonetheless, the scope for alchemy extended. Good hydro sites remain rare. But they're less rare than ever before. Now even a brook or creek can be spun into gold.

A Typical System

In the vocabulary of hydro experts, the word typical is typically missing. "Every site is different," they insist.

"Every installation, unique:" Talking to them, you get the impression they'd sooner cut off a finger than com pose a rule of thumb.

That said, the system at the Coulter Lake Guest Ranch is, in many respects, typical. A short distance uphill from the lodge is a screened concrete box, the intake, which channels water into a pipe or penstock. After falling downhill, the penstock terminates in a small shed or, to give it its fancy name, powerhouse. Inside are the turbine, generator, batteries, inverter, and load controller. After passing through the turbine, the water flows out of the powerhouse through another pipe and into a rock-lined ditch or tailrace.

What is most remarkable about the setup is its water source—a spring-fed ditch three feet wide and six inches deep. Just half this piddling quantity feeds the turbine, enough to produce 400 watts continuously, plenty to power the Benzingers' lodge or a home.

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