Innovative hydro-power

A Taranaki company is using a large measure of Kiwi ingenuity to market its innovative micro hydro power systems. Liz Light has the story.

Michael Lawley, who has an engineering background, has been interested in alternative energy since his teens. When he and his wife looked for a property near New Plymouth, they looked for one that had plenty of sun and wind and was near a small river. They found a suitable property and today their home and engineering workshop is not connected to the national grid but runs all the usual electronic machines and conveniences on renewable energy.

Lawley began helping others install renewable energy systems, and building them. Work built up until two years ago he formed EcoInnovation, a company that produces commercial micro wind and hydropower systems – systems that can work together to produce electricity or can operate independently. To date EcoInnovation’s micro hydro systems have been most successful in finding a market gap.

A mini hydro system requires water and fall and a pipeline is used to harness this, supplying the drop to give the water enough pressure to drive a turbine. The turbine produces 3-phase AC power and a rectifier (a small box with three wires going in and two coming out) turns this into DC power. This is taken to the house site by wire and stored in a 48V battery bank. Domestic appliances run off 230V so an inverter is required to convert the 48V power.

The turbine constantly charges the batteries so they recover, to capacity, during the night to compensate for the drain of power-hungry equipment during the day.

Typically the system can be made, depending on the proximity of the stream, from as little as $5000 – this includes pipeline, power cable, turbine, inverter and battery bank.

The turbine is usually the key cost in such a system but Lawley, with lateral thinking and an eye for opportunity, produces very inexpensive turbines. "I stumbled upon an old Fisher & Paykel Smartdrive motor at the dump and took it home. With a few modifications, it is imminently suited to being the generator for a micro hydro system. It has a decent sized direct-drive motor and because there is no gearbox it has high torque and low speed and can easily be used as a generator. I recondition the motors, add a rotor and the jets that feed the water onto the rotor. Then the rotor drives the generator, which is the modified F&P motor."

Lawley approached Fisher & Paykel about procuring its second-hand Smartdrive motors. "It’s a waste stream for F&P and I get them for a minimum price. They get rid of waste without having to pay freight and disposal costs and I get motors I can recondition and convert into a turbine, so it’s a win-win arrangement."

The catch is that EcoInnovation has to take all the Smartdrive motors that come into the F&P recycling centre – between 600 and 1000 a year. Initially, Lawley worried that his workshop would sink underneath a mountain of Smartdrive motors, but sales were good in 2004 and are steadily increasing.

New Zealand is too small for such a specialised product, as there is a limit to the number of people living near streams, so EcoInnovation is actively recruiting agents around the world.

Reaching world markets

Usually, when selling off-shore, EcoInnovation sells just the turbine because the other components are easy to procure in local markets, and the turbine has a cost advantage over global alternatives because it uses another company’s mass-produced product. Two units fit into a standard DHL carton and can be sent anywhere for $350.

EcoInnovation reaches the world by selling direct to customers via the Internet. Often, after a sale has been made in one place, more follow. "For instance," says Lawley, "an Irishman found EcoInnovation on the net and we sent the turbine and the information he needed to complete the system. His neighbour saw it and was impressed so he ordered one too. Then a person with a background in renewable energy saw the system in action and ordered one and has now become an agent for us."

Lawley is a passionate advocate of renewable energy and is proud that his company uses it to make products that make renewable energy. He likes the concept of sustainability, including recycling, and more than 60 percent of EcoInnovation’s mini hydro system is from recycled parts. However, the engineering is excellent and when people look at the turbines they would never know they are from
second-hand motors.