LECTURE NOTES

ON

Power System Architecture

B.Tech (EEE)

II YEAR I SEMESTER

Mr.K.Delhi Prasad
Assistant Professor

P.Kothakota Post,Near Pakala,Chittoor, AP - 517112.

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF EEE Page 1

UNIT-I CONVENTIONAL POWER GENERATING SYSTEMS
Thermal Power: Block Diagram of Thermal Power Station (TPS), Brief Description of TPS
Components
Hydro Power: Selection of Site, Classification, Layout, Description of Main Components.
Nuclear Power: Nuclear Fission and Chain Reaction-Principle of Operation of Nuclear
Reactor.-Reactor Components: Moderators, Control Rods, Reflectors and Coolants.-
Radiation
Hazards: Shielding and Safety Precautions.- Types of Nuclear Reactors.
Unit Outcomes: At the end of the unit, the student will be able to
Understand the concept of layout and design aspects of Thermal, Hydro and Nuclear
Power Plants.
Obtain the principle of operation of Thermal, Hydro and Nuclear Power Plants.
UNIT -II NON CONVENTIONAL POWER GENERATING SYSTEMS
Solar Power Generation: Role and Potential of Solar Energy Options, Principles of Solar
Radiation, Solar Energy Collectors, Different Methods of Energy Storage – PV Cell- V-I
Characteristics.
Wind Power Generation: Role and potential of Wind Energy Options, Horizontal and
Vertical
Axis Wind Mills- Performance Characteristics-Pitch & Yaw Controls – Economic Aspects.
Biogas Power Generation: Principles of Bioconversion, Types of Biogas Digesters –
Characteristics of Bio-Gas- Utilization- Economic and Environmental Aspects.
Geothermal and Ocean Power Generation: Principle of Geothermal Energy Methods of
Harnessing-Principle of Ocean Energy-Tidal and Wave Energy- Mini Hydel Plants-
EconomicAspects.
Unit Outcomes: At the end of the unit, the student will be able to
Understand the concept of design of Solar, Wind, Bio-Gas, Geothermal and Ocean Power
generation.
Obtain the principle of operation of Solar, Wind, Bio-Gas, Geothermal and Ocean Power
generation.
UNIT-III TRANSMISSION LINE PARAMETERS
Types of conductors - calculation of resistance for solid conductors - Calculation of
inductance for single phase and three phase, single and double circuit lines, concept of GMR
& GMD,Symmetrical and asymmetrical conductor configurations with and without
transposition. Calculation of capacitance for 2 wire and 3 wire systems, effect of ground on

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capacitance, capacitance calculations for symmetrical and asymmetrical single and three
phase, single and double circuit lines, Numerical Problems.
Unit Outcomes: At the end of the unit, the student will be able to
1. Obtain the transmission line parameters for different types of lines and also for
symmetrical and asymmetrical single and three phase, single and double circuit lines.
UNIT – IV MODELING OF TRANSMISSION LINES
Classification of Transmission Lines - Short, medium and long lines and their models -
representations - Nominal-T, Nominal-π and A, B, C, D Constants. Mathematical Solutions
to estimate regulation and efficiency of all types of lines- Long Transmission Line-Rigorous
Solution, evaluation of A,B,C,D Constants, Interpretation of the Long Line Equations –
Representation of Long lines – Equivalent T and Equivalent – π, Numerical Problems. –
Surge Impedance and surge Impedance loading - wavelengths and Velocity of propagation –
Ferranti effect, Charging current, Need of Shunt Compensation.
Unit Outcomes: At the end of the unit, the student will be able to Obtain the classification
of transmission lines and A,B,C,D constants for transmission lines, need of shunt
compensation.
UNIT-VGENERAL ASPECTS OF DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS
Classification of Distribution Systems - Comparison of DC & AC and Under-Ground & Over
-Head Distribution Systems. Voltage Drop and power loss in D.C Distributors for the
followingcases: Radial D.C Distributors fed at one end and at ends (equal/unequal Voltages),
Uniformloading and Ring Main Distributor, LVDC Distribution Network. Design
Considerations ofDistribution Feeders: Radial and loop types of primary feeders, feeder
loading; basic design ofsecondary distribution. Voltage Drop and power loss in A.C.
Distributors.
SUBSTATIONS:
Location of Substations: Rating of distribution substations, service area within primary
feeders.
Benefits derived through optimal location of substations.Classification of substations: Air
insulated substations - Indoor & Outdoor substations:
Substation layout showing the location of all the substation equipment.
Bus bar arrangements in Sub-Stations: Simple arrangements like single bus bar,
sectionalizedsingle bus bar, main and transfer bus bar, Double breaker – One and half breaker
system withrelevant diagrams, lightening arrestors, Substation grounding

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 UNIT-1
THERMAL POWER GENERATING SYSTEMS

Block Diagram of Thermal Power Station (TPS) showing paths of Coal, Steam, Water, Air,
Ash and Flue Gasses - Brief Description of TPS Components: Economizers, Boilers, Super
Heaters, Turbines, Condensers, Chimney and Cooling Towers.

Introduction
➢ Thermal energy is the major source of power generation in India. More than 60% of
electric power is produced by steam plants in India. India has large deposit of coal(about 170
billion tonnes), 5th largest in world. Indian coals are classified as A-G grade coals.
➢ In Steam power plants, the heat of combustion of fossil fuels is utilized by the boilers to
raise steam at high pressure and temperature. The steam so produced is used in driving the
steam turbines or sometimes steam engines couples to generators and thus in generating
electrical energy.
➢ Steam turbines or steam engines used in steam power plants not only act as prime movers
but also as drives for auxiliary equipment, such as pumps, stokers fans etc.
➢ Steam power plants may be installed either to generate electrical energy only or generate
electrical energy along with generation of steam for industrial purposes such as in paper
mills, textile mills, sugar mills and refineries, chemical works, plastic manufacture, food
manufacture etc.
➢ The steam for process purposes is extracted from a certain section of turbine and the
remaining steam is allowed to expand in the turbine. Alternatively the exhaust steam may be
used for process purposes.
➢Thermal stations can be private industrial plants and central station.
Advantages And Disadvantages Of A Thermal Power Plant
Advantages:
▪ Less initial cost as compared to other generating stations.
▪ It requires less land as compared to hydro power plant.
▪ The fuel (i.e. coal) is cheaper.
▪ The cost of generation is lesser than that of diesel power plants.
Disadvantages:
▪ It pollutes the atmosphere due to the production of large amount of smoke. This is one of
the causes of global warming.

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▪ The overall efficiency of a thermal power station is low (less than 30%).
▪ Requires long time for errection and put into action.
▪ Costlier in operating in comparison with that of Hydro and Nuclear power plants.
▪ Requirement of water in huge quantity.

Figure: Schematic diagram of a Thermal power plant

Selection of site for thermal power plant

• Nearness to the load centre: The power plant should be as near as possible to the load
centre to the centre of load .So that the transmission cost and losses are minimum. This factor
is most important when Dc supply system is adopted. However in the case of AC supply
when transformation of energy from lower voltage to higher voltage and vice versa
is possible power plants can be erected at places other than that of load provided other
conditions are favourable.

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• Water resources: For the construction and operating of power plant large volumes of water
are required for the following reasons
(i) To raise the steam in boiler.
(ii) For cooling purpose such as in condensers
(iii) As a carrying medium such as disposal of ash.
(iv) For drinking purposes.
This could be supplied from either rivers or underground water resources. Therefore having
enough water supplies in defined vicinity can be a factor in the selection of the site
.• Availability of Coal: Huge amount of coal is required for raising the steam. Since the
government policy is to use the only low grade coal with 30 to 40 % ash content for power
generation purposes, the steam power plants should be located near the coal mines to avoid
the transport of coal & ash.
• Land Requirement: The land is required not only for setting up the plant but for other
purposes also such as staff colony, coal storage, ash disposal etc.

Eg: For 2000MW plant, the land requirement may be of the order of 200-250 acres. As the
cost of the land adds up to the final cost of the plant, it should be available at a reasonable
Price. Land should be available for future extension.
• Transportation Facilities: The facilities must be available for transportation ofheavy
equipment and fuels e.g near railway station.
• Labour supplies: Skilled and unskilled laborers should be available at reasonablerates near
the site of the plant.
• Ash Disposal: Ash is the main waste product of the steam power plant and with low-grade
coal, it may be 3.5 tones per day , some suitable means for disposal of ash should be though
of. It may be purchased by building contractors, or it can be used for brick making near the
plant site. If the site is near the coal mine it can be dumped into the disused mines. In case of
site located near a river, sea or lake ash can be dumped into it.
• Distance from populated area: The continuous burning of coal at the power station
produces smoke, fumes and ash which pollute the surrounding area. Such a pollution due to
smoke is dangerous for the people living around the area. Hence, the site of aplant should be
at a considerable distance from the populated area.
Major Components of a Thermal Power Plant
• Coal Handling Plant
• Pulverizing Plant

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• Draft or Draught fan
• Boiler
• Ash Handling Plant
• Turbine and Generator
• Condenser
• Cooling Tower And Ponds
• Feed Water Heater
• Economiser

• Super heater and PReheater

• Air pre heater
• Alternator with Exciter
• Protection and control equipment
• Instrumentation
BOILER
❖ A boiler (or steam generator) is a closed vessel in which water, under pressure, is
converted into steam. The heat is transferred to the boiler by all three modes of heat transfer
i.e. conduction, convection and radiation.
❖Major types of boilers are: (i) fire tube boiler and (ii) water tube boiler
❖generally water tube boilers are used for electric power stations.
Fire Tube Boiler
• The boiler is named so because the products of combustion pass through the tubes which
are surrounded by water.
• Depending on whether the tube is vertical or horizontal the fire tube boiler is divided into
two types
1. Vertical tube boiler
2. Horizontal tube boiler
• A fire tube boiler is simple, compact and rugged in construction. Its initial cost is low.
• Water being more and circulation being poor they cannot meet quickly to changes in steam
demand.
• As water and steam, both are in the same shell, higher pressure of steam are not possible,
the maximum pressure which can be had is 17.5 kg/cm2 with a capacity of 15,000kg of steam
per hour.

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For the same output the outer shell of a fire tube boiler is much larger than that of a water
tube boiler.
• In the event of a sudden and major tube failure. Steam explosions may be caused in the
furnace due to rush of high pressure water into the hot combustion chamber which may
generate large quantities of steam in the furnace.
• Fire tube boilers use is therefore limited to low cost small size and low pressure plants.

Figure : Fire Tube Boiler

Water Tube Boilers
• In this boiler, the water flows inside the tubes and hot gases flow outside the tube .
• Water tube boiler are classified as
1. Vertical tube boiler
2. Horizontal tube boiler
3. Inclined tube boiler
• The circulation of water in the boiler is may be natural or forced.
• For Central steam power plants large capacity of water tube boilers are used.
• The tubes are always external to the drum they can be built in smaller size and therefore
withstand high pressure.
• The boiler drum contains both steam and water, the former being trapped from the top of
the drum where the highest concentration of dry steam exists.

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 Figure: Water tube bolier
SUPERHEATER AND REHEATERS
• The function of the super heater is to remove the last trash of moisture from the saturated
Steam leaving the boiler tubes and also increases its temperature above the saturation
temperature.
• For this purpose the heat of the combustion gases from the furnace is utilized.
• Super heated steam is that steam which contains more heat than the saturated steam at the
same pressure. The additional heat provides more energy to the turbine hence power out put
is more.
• Superheated steam causes lesser erosion of the turbine blades and can be transmitted for
longer distance with little heat loss.

• A superheater may be convention type, radiant type or combination. However ,convention

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super heaters are more commonly used.

Figure: Functions of superheater

Figure: Super heaters

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REHEATER
• In addition to super heater modern boiler has reheater also. The function of the reaheater is
to superheat the partly expanded steam from the turbine, this ensure that the steam remain
dry through the last stage of the turbine.
• A reheater may be convention type, radiant type or combination.

Feed Water Heaters: These heaters are used to heat the feed water by means of blend steam
before it is supplied to the boiler. Necessity of heating feed water before feeding it back to the
boiler arises due to the following reasons.
• Feed Water heating improve overall efficiency.
• The dissolved oxygen which would otherwise cause boiler corrosion are removed in the
feed water heater.
• Thermal stresses due to cold water entering the boiler drum are avoided.
• Quantity of steam produced by the boiler is increased.
• Some other impurities carried by steam and condensate, due to corrosion in boiler and
condenser, are precipitated outside the boiler.

Figure: Water steam flow diagram

ECONOMIZER
• Boilers are provided with economizer and air pre-heaters to recover heat from the flue
gases. An increase of about 20% in boiler efficiency is achieved by providing both
economizer and air pre-heaters.

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• Economizer alone gives only 10-12% efficiency increase, causes saving in fuel
consumption 5-15 %. The feed water from the high pressure heaters enters the economizer
and picks up heat from the flue gases after the low temperature superheater.
Economizer can be classified as an inline or staggered arrangement based on the type of
tube arrangement.
• For pressure of 70 Kg/cm2 or more economizer becomes a necessity.
• The tubes are arranged in parallel continuous loops.
• Feed water flows through the tubes and the flue gases outside the tubes across them.
The feed water should be sufficiently pure not to cause forming of scales and cause internal
corrosion and under boiler pressure.
• The temperature of the feed water entering the economizer should be high enough so that
moister from the flue gases does not condense on the economizer tubes.
AIR PREHEATERS
• After the flue gases leave economizer, some further heat can be extracted from them and is
used to heat the incoming air for combustion.
• Air preheaters may be of following types:
➢Plate type
➢Tubular type
➢Regenerative type
• Cooling of flue gases by 200increase the efficiency of the plant by 1%.
• The use of air preheaters is more economical with pulverized fuel boilers because the
temperature of flue gases going out is sufficiently large and high air temperatures (250 to
3500 C) is always desirable for better combustion.
• Air preheaters should have high thermal efficiency, reliability of operation, lessmaintance
charges, should occupy small space, should be reasonable in initial cost and should be
accessible.
• In order to avoid corrosion of the air preheaters, the flue gases should not be cooled below
the dew point.

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 Figure: Air Preheater
STEAM TURBINES
• Steam entering from a small opening attains a very high velocity.
• The velocity attained during expansion depends on the initial and final content of the
Steam.
• The difference in initial and final heat content represent the heat energy to be converted to
kinetic energy.
There are two types of steam turbines:
1)Impluse turbine and
2)Reaction Turbine
Impuse Turbine:
➢ In this turbine there are alternate rows of moving and fixed blades. The moving blades are
mounted on the shaft and fixed blades are fixed to the casing of the turbine.
➢ A set of fixed nozzle is provided and steam is passed through these nozzles. The P.E in
steam
due to pressure and internal energy is converted to K.E. The steam comes out of the nozzles
with very high velocity and impinges on the rotor blades.
➢The direction of steam flow changes without changing its pressure.

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➢Thus due to the change in momentum the turbine rotor starts rotating.

Reaction Turbine:
➢ Reaction turbine have no nozzles. These two have alternate rows of moving and fixed
blades. The moving blades are mounted on shaft, while fixed blades are fixed in casing of
turbine.
➢ When high pressure steam passes through fixed blades, then steam pressure drops down
and velocity of steam increases.
➢ As steam passes over moving blades, the steam expands and imparts energy,resultingin
reduction in pressure and velocity of steam.
Note: Turbines used in thermal power stations are Impuse, Reaction or combined. Generally
multistage turbines are used. H.P steam after doing work in the H.P stage passes over l.P
stage . more work is extracted thereby, with consequent increase in thermal efficiency.
Compounding of steam turbines:
Single stage turbines are of low efficiency.
In compounding, a number of rotors are connected or keyed to the same shaft
Two types of compounding are used: velocity compounding and pressure compounding
Governing of steam turbines:
Governing signifies the process of controlling the volume of steam to meet the load
fluctuation.

Figure : Steam Turbines

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CONDENSERS
The function of the condenser is to condense the steam exiting the turbine. The condenser
helps maintain low pressure at the exhaust. Two types of condensers are used.
Table : Jet and Surface Condensers

Figure: Surface Condenser

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 Figure: Jet Condenser

DEAERATORS
➢A deaerator is a device that is widely used for the removal of oxygen and other dissolved
gases from the feed water to steam-generating boilers.
➢ In particular, dissolved oxygen in boiler feed waters will cause serious corrosion damage
in steam systems by attaching to the walls of metal piping and other metallic equipment and
forming oxides (rust).
➢There are two basic types of deaerators,
1. The tray-type an
2. The spray-type
➢ The tray-type (also called the cascade-type) includes a vertical domed deaerationsection
mounted on top of a horizontal cylindrical vessel which serves as thedeaerated boiler feed
water storage tank.
➢ The spray-type consists only of a horizontal (or vertical) cylindrical vessel which serves as
both the deaeration section and the boiler feed water storage tank.
COOLING TOWERS AND SPRAY PONDS
• Condensers need huge quantity of water to condense the steam.

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• Water is led into the plants by means of circulating water pumps and after passing through
the condenser is discharged back into the river.
• If such a source is not available closed cooling water circuit is used where the warm water
coming out of the condenser is cooled and reused.
• In such cases ponds and cooling towers are used where the water loses heat to the
atmosphere

.
Figure: Cooling Tower

Figure: Cooling Towers

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ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATORS
• An electrostatic precipitator (ESP), or electrostatic air cleaner is a particulate collection
device that removes particles from a flowing gas (such as air) using the force of an
induced electrostatic charge.
• The basic idea of an ESP:
❖Charging
❖collecting.
❖removing

Every particle either has or can be given a charge—positive or negative.

• We impart a negative charge to all the particles in a gas stream in ESP.
• Then a grounded plate having a positive charge is set up.
• The negatively charged particle would migrate to the grounded collection plate and be
captured.
• The particles would quickly collect on the plate, creating a dust layer. The dust layerwould
accumulate until we removed it.
• The structural design and operation of the discharge electrodes (rigid-frame, wires orplate)
and collection electrodes.
❖tubular type ESP
❖plate type ESP
• The method of charging
❖single-stage ESP
❖two-stage ESP
• The temperature of operation
❖cold-side ESP
❖hot-side ESP
• The method of particle removal from collection surfaces
❖wet ESP
❖Dry ESP

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 UNIT-II
UNIT-II

HYDRO & NUCLEAR POWER GENERATING SYSTEMS

Hydro Power: Selection of Site, Classification, Layout, Description of Main Components

Nuclear Power: Nuclear Fission and Chain Reaction.- Nuclear Fuels.- Principle of Operation
of Nuclear Reactor.-Reactor Components: Moderators, Control Rods, Reflectors and
Coolants.- Radiation Hazards: Shielding and Safety Precautions.- Types of Nuclear Reactors
and Brief Description of PWR, BWR and FBR

1. Definition of Hydro-Electric Power Plant:

A generating station which utilizes the potential energy of water at a high level for the
generation of electrical energy is known as a hydro-electric power station.

2. Basic Principal of Hydro-Electric Power Plant.

PE↔KE↔ME↔EE
(Potential Energy↔ Kinetic Energy ↔Mechanical Energy ↔Electrical Energy
We know that, water is stored in dam by using rain water. This stored water contains
Potential energy, due to height or head of dam. When this water is flow towards turbine, at
that time the Kinetic Energy is Converted into Mechanical Energy. The turbine or prime
mover is mechanically coupled with generator. Whenever turbine starts to rotate with the help
of high pressure water, automatically generator starts to rotate & it produced an electrical
energy.

Selection of Site for Hydro-Electric Power Plant

1. Quantity of Water Required:
As we know that, the hydro-electric power plant totally runs on water, so that ample quantity
of water is continuously available throughout the year.

2. Hilly Area Required:

For storage of ample quantity of water, both side of dam hilly area or strong mountains
required for storage of water.

3. Civil Work:
It should have strong foundation or the cost of foundation should be as low as possible.

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4. Large Catchment Area:
Large catchment area required, so that the water in it should never fall below the minimum
level.

5. Transportation Facility:
For Workers & Civil Material required better transportation facility.

6. Near to Load Center:

To reduce cost of Transmission & Distribution the plant should be located near to load center.

7. Availability of Material:
At the time of erecting the dam & power house a huge amount of civil material is easily
available without any shortage

8. Area free from earthquake:

Ample quantity of water storage in dam of hydro-electric power plant because of earth quake
chances to flood occurs; to avoid this area should be free from earthquake

9. Accommodation Facility:
For operational & maintenance staff better facility of accommodation is provided at
reasonable rate.

10. Future Expansion:

For increasing per MW Capacity of plant the space is available for future expansion.

5. Definition of the terms & their significance in capacity of power plant: Hydrology,
Surface runoff, evaporation & precipitation.

Fig: Hydrological Cycle

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a. Hydrology:
It is the system which is related with water is known as hydrology. The hydrology related
with head of water, flow of quantity of water, mass of water. The above data is useful for to
utilize to decide the installed capacity of hydro-electric power plant.

b. Surface Run-off:
It is the portion of precipitation which makes its way towards streams, lakes or oceans. Run-
off can be possible only when the rate of precipitation exceeds the rate at which water
infiltrates into soil. Also the losses due to evaporation have been deducted.
Where, R = P-E
R = Run-off
P = Precipitation
E = Evaporation

c. Evaporation:
It is the transfer of water from liquid to vapour state

d. Precipitation:
It includes all types of water falls from atmosphere to earth surface. It is of two types:

1. Liquid Precipitation (Rainfall)

2. Solid Precipitation (Snow, Hail)

e. Significance of this on capacity of power plant:

1. The quantity of water is available to store in dam.

2. To know the head (height) of water.

3. To know the quantity of water available for per sec. or per hour.

4. It helps to determine the power in kW.

5. To know the installed capacity of the power plant.

6. Schematic arrangement of Hydro-Electric Power Plant:

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 Fig: Hydro-Electric Power Plant

FIG:7 Function of Different Components used in Hydro-Electric Power Plant:

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 Fig: Shows all Parts of Hydro-Electric Power Plant (use only for understanding)

1. Catchment Area:
In hydro-electric power plant collect the rain water through surrounding hilly area, the
surrounding all water collect & stored area to those place is known as catchment area.

2. Reservoir: (Shown in above figure)

The function of reservoir is to store the water near dam; this water is useful to drive the water
turbines. The reservoir is useful to provide a head of stored water.

3. Track Rash:

Fig: Track Rack

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It is used in hydro-electric power plant to filter the water before it flows towards turbine. The
unwanted impurities (e.g. fish, plastics etc.) present in the stored water are avoided to flow
towards turbine.

4. Head-Race Level: (Shown in Schematic arrangement of HPP)

The water surface in the reservoir up to the dam is known as head-race level.

5. Dam:
The dam is used in hydro-electric power plant to store the water. Whenever the dam stored
the water, it provides suitable head to this stored water. This stored water is useful throughout
the year to run the hydro-electric power plant. Dam is made up of cement, concrete & sand
materials. If higher rainfall occurs then door of dams are opened to flow of water.

6. Spill Way:

The excess water from dam is discharges through spillway at a permissible level.

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7. Penstock:

Fig: Penstock arrangement in HPP

It is the device which is used in hydro-electric power plant for the purpose of flow of water.
The water flow of from dam towards turbine with the help of penstock. It converts the
potential energy of water into kinetic energy. The penstocks are made up of cast iron or
concrete material. The penstock is hollow in nature & of large diameter.

8. Tunnel (Water ways):

The passage of flow water from dam is called Tunnel or intake. Water ways may be in the
form of canal or tunnel or penstock. OR It is used to carry the water from water reservoir to
surge tank.

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9. Surge tank:

Fig: Surge Tank

It is a device which is connected in between dam & power house. It is of vertical type, at the
time of starting of hydro-electric power plant, near power house valve is closed. Then water
flows from dam towards turbine & filled the surge tank, after that valve is open either
manually or automatically, water flow towards turbine when valves are open & turbine or
prime mover starts to rotate. This sequence is follow to avoid or to prevent the turbines
against water hammer effect.
Water hammer effect:
When load on power plant or alternator decreases then Governor (valve) reduces discharge of
water. Due to sudden reduction in water discharge causes increase in pressure of the water in
the penstock. Due to high pressure penstock may damage. This effect is known as ‘Water
hammer effect’
OR
When load on power plant or alternator decreases then:
Governor (valve) reduces discharge of water.

Due to sudden reduction in water discharge causes increase in pressure in the penstock.
Due to high pressure penstock may damage.

This effect is known as ‘Water hammer effect.

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Effect is reduced:
With the help of surge tank water hammer effect is eliminated OR At that time surge tank
helps by storing this rejected water immediately. In this way it avoids Water hammer effect.

10. Forebay:

Fig: Forebay
Instead of surge tank some hydro-electric power plants used Forebay. The Forebay are useful
as the surge due to change in load occurs. Forebay is an enlarged body of water at the intake
(dam) to store more quantity of water. It is nothing but regulating reservoir. Forebay is stores
the rejected water as the load on the turbine decreases & supplies water immediately when
load on turbine increases i.e. it is nothing but surge tank for small capacity hydro power
station.

11. Valve house:

Fig: Valve used to ON/OFF water flow

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It is installed near power house, its function is to start or stop the flow of water towards
turbine.

12. Power House:

It is the main heart of hydro-electric power plant. Form the electrical engineers point of view.
In Power house main function is to produce electrical power. For that purpose the turbine or
prime mover is mechanically coupled with generator. The mechanical energy is converted
into electrical energy through generator or whenever turbine starts to rotate at higher speed
the generator produces electrical power output
13. Prime Mover or Turbine:

Fig: Prime Mover (Turbine) # Generator of HPP

Its main function is to take water from dam at high pressure & start to rotate. The prime
mover or turbine converts kinetic energy of water into mechanical energy. In hydro-electric
power plant depends upon head or height pelton wheel, Francis, Kaplan & Propeller types of
turbines are used.

14. Draft tube:

Fig: Draft Tube

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It is used in hydro-electric power plant near the turbine. Its main function is to press the water
& its pressure increases. Depends upon the type of turbine draft tube are required.

15. Generator:

Fig: Turbine # Generator

It is used to convert the mechanical energy into electrical energy. For that purpose the turbine
& generator are mechanically coupled.

Cavitations Effect:
When load on power plant or alternator increases then Governor (valve) increases discharge
of water.
Due to sudden increase in water discharge causes/ creates vacuum in the penstock. (Negative
pressure).

That is causes cavity, so penstock will not supply water properly.

This effect is known as ‘Cavity effect’.

Effect is reduced:
With the help of surge tank cavitations effect is eliminated OR At that time surge tank helps
by supply the required water immediately. In this way it avoids Cavity effect.
16. Tailrace: (Shown in schematic arrangement of HPP)

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After generation the remaining water discharges to river or lake through tail race. From
ground level to the turbine some height is maintained to discharge the water.

8. Classification of Hydro-Electric Power Plant:

1. Classification According to Quantity of Water Available:

a. Run of River Plants Without Pondage.

b. Run of River Plants with Pondage.

c. Reservoir Plants.

a. Run of River Plants Without Pondage:

In this type of hydro-electric power plant, the available water from river or lake is not stored
in pond. Whenever the water available from river or lake it is directly used to run water
turbine. The capacity of such plants depends upon the rate of flow of water. Such type of
plant may run during rainy season.
b. Run of River Plants with Pondage.
The above mentioned runs of river plant without pondage have some limitations. To
overcome this drawback, in this type of hydro-electric plant the available water from river or
lake is stored in pond. Due to this storage water in pond, it is useful to run the plant during
off-peak & peak period. The capacity of such type of hydro-electric plant is depends upon the
size of pond.

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c. Reservoir Plants.

Fig: Reservoir Plant

This type of hydro-electric plant is totally different form the above mentioned two plants. In
this type of hydro-electric power plant, reservoir is provided. This reservoir is useful to store
an ample quantity of water during rainy season, & this is useful throughout the year. Such
type of power plant has better capacity. This type of hydro-electric power plant may be used
as base load plant. Majority of the hydro-electric power plants are of this type.

2. Classification According to Available Water Head.

a. Low Head Plants (Below 30m)

b. Medium Head Plants (30 to 300 m)

c. High Head Plants (above 300m

a. Low Head Plants:

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 Fig: Low Head HPP
The low head plants have water head below 30m. A low head power plant store water by
construction of dam across river or lake. The power house is installed near the base of dam on
the downstream side. The barrages with regulating gates are provided to flow of excess water
in river or lake. In low head hydro-electric power plant Kaplan turbines can be used.

b. Medium Head Plants:

Fig: Medium Head HPP

If the available water head is between 30 and 100 m, the plant is called a medium-head plant.
Water is led to the turbines from the Forebay by the penstocks, which may be steel pipes.
Forebay also stores the rejected water as the load on the turbine decreases. Francis turbines
are normally used.
OR
If the available water head is between 30 and 100 m, the plant is called a medium head plant.
Water is led to the turbines from the Forebay by the penstocks, which may be steel pipes.
Forebay also stores the rejected water as the load on the turbine decreases. Francis turbines
are normally used.

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c. High Head Power Plant:

Fig: High Head HPP

If the available head is more than 300 m, the plant is called high-head plant. The civil works
include a surge tank, the function of which is to meet the sudden changes in the requirement
of water caused by the fluctuations in the system load.
OR
If the available head is more than 300 m, the plant is called high-head plant. The civil works
include a surge tank, the function of which is to meet the sudden changes in the requirement
of water caused by the fluctuations in the system load.

3. Classification of plants According to Nature of Load:

a. Base-Load Plants:

b. Peak-Load Plants:

c. Pumped Storage Hydro-Electric Power Plant for Peak Load.

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 Fig: Base & Peak Load
a. Base-Load Plants:

The unvarying load which occurs almost the whole day on the station is known as base load.
Refer the load curve as shown in figure. It is clear that 20 MW of load to be supplied by the
station at all times of day & night i.e. throughout 24 hours. Therefore 20 MW is the base load
of the station. The base load on the station is almost constant in nature. The base load plants
have largest capacity & load factor.

b. Peak-Load Plant:
The various peak demands of load over & above the base load on the station are known as
peak load. Refer the load curve as shown in above figure, it is clear that there are peak
demands of load excluding peak load. These peak demands of the station generally from a
small part of the total load & may occur through the day. Run-off River plants with pondage
can be used as peak load.

Compare Base Load & Peak Load Power Plant:

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Distinguish between run-off river plant with pondage & pumped storage power plant?

Pumped Storage Hydro-Electric Power Plant:

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 Fig: Pumped Storage Hydro-Electric Power Plant
The schematic arrangement of Pumped Storage Hydro-Electric Power Plant is as shown in
figure. This type of power plant is useful where availability of water for power generation is
insufficient. Generally, there are two ponds. One is in head race level & other is in tail race
level. The stored water from head race pond is useful for electrical power generation. When
the water flows towards turbine, it starts to rotate. The discharge water from turbine is stored
in tail race pond. During off peak period the stored water from tail race pond is pumped to
head race pond again, with the help of motors. This cycle is continuously repeated, that’s why
it is known as Pumped storage hydro-electric power plant.

Applications of Pumped storage plants: To supply peak load

Types of Turbine:
The turbines used in hydro-electric power plant are acts as a prime mover of generator, can
be classified into two types:

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a. According to the type of flow of water:
i. Axis along the shaft of the machine: The machines having flow of water along the axis
are called as axial flow turbines.

ii. Axis along the radius: The machines in which the water flows along the radius are called
as radial flow turbines.

iii. Axis along the tangential directions: The turbines using this type of flow are called
tangential flow turbines.
b. According to the action on fluid:
i. Impulse Turbine:
Such types of turbines are used at high heads. In an impulse turbine the entire pressure of
water is converted into kinetic energy in a nozzle & the velocity of the jet drives the wheel.
The example of this type of turbine is Pelton Wheel.

ii. Reaction Turbine

Reaction turbines are used for low & medium heads. In a reaction turbine water enters the
runner partly with pressure energy & partly with velocity head. The reaction turbines are
classified into two types: Francis & Kaplan turbines.
Example of Impulse & Reaction Turbine:

Fig. A: Pelton Wheel Turbine

Fig B: Francis Turbine
Fig C: Kaplan Turbine

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a. Pelton Wheel:

Fig: Pelton Wheel Turbine

 Pelton wheel is an impulse type of turbine.

 This type of turbine is used at high head (90 to 1100 m)

 Its specific speed is 10 to 40 rpm.

 It consists of a rotor equipped with elliptical buckets along the whole periphery.

 The Pelton wheel turbine consists of runner, buckets, nozzle, needle valve & Shaft.

 The buckets are made up of stainless steel, cast iron & bronze material.

 In this type of turbine 1 or 2 jets are used to force the water through buckets.

 The nozzles are used to increase the pressure of water flow towards turbine.

 The shaft is useful to mechanical coupling with generator.

 The direction of flow of water is tangential.

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b. Francis Turbine:

Fig: Francis Turbine

 Francis turbine is a Reaction type of turbine.

 The Francis turbines are mostly used for medium head of water (14 to 300 m).

 The specific speed of Francis turbine is 95 to 440 rpm.

 The Francis turbine consists of outer & inner ring, blades, wheel etc.

 The outer ring consists of stationary guide blades, which are fixed to the casing.

The inner ring consists of rotating blades.

 The water flows in Francis turbine is in radial direction.

 Sometimes draft tube is used for discharge of water directly into tail race.

 The Francis turbine is of both horizontal & vertical type.

 The horizontal turbines are used for higher speeds.

 The vertical turbines are used for higher capacity.

 The diameter & weight of Francis turbine is less.

 The blades of this type of turbine are moved in both directions, according to the flow
of water.

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  At higher speed it is very efficient type of turbine.
c. Kaplan Turbine:

Fig: Kaplan Turbine

 The Kaplan turbine is a reaction type of turbine.

 The Kaplan turbine is used for low head up to 3 to 30 m.

 The specific speed of Kaplan turbine is 550 to 830 rpm.

 The Kaplan turbine consists of runner, blades, casing, guide blades, guide wheel, draft
tube & shaft.

 The Kaplan turbine consists of 3 to 6 blades.

 In Kaplan turbine the water strikes in axial direction.

 The guide vans are used to control speed of water.

 This type of turbine has higher efficiency at all load.

 It is used for low head, but to run this turbine large quantity of water required.

 The draft tube is useful to discharge the water to tail race level.

 The shaft is useful for mechanical coupling between turbine & generator.

Specification of different types of turbines:

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Compare pelton wheel and Kaplan turbine on the basis of type of flow of water,
Suitable for type of head and flow, construction and control of water.

Comparism between Francis & Kaplan Turbine:

10. Generators used in Hydro-Electric Power Plant:

 It is 3-ph hydro generator (alternator).

 It is robust in construction.

 A separate excitation is given to separate alternator pole by DC generator (Exciter)

which is mounted on same shaft. It excites the field winding of alternator.

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  To excite the main exciter there is pilot exciter which is of permanent magnet.

 The excitation voltage DC 110/220/300V.

 Generated voltage is 3.3KV, 6.6Kv, 11KV, 17.5KV and 20 KV.

 Number of poles of hydro generator (alternator). is more and is various from 6 to 120
and machines are salient pole type.

 Hydro generator (alternator). Is large diameter and small is length.

 In case of generator (alternator). Coupled with impulse turbine are horizontal shaft
and its speed is 100-1000 rpm.

 In case of hydro generator couple with reaction turbine is vertical shaft and its speed
is low 20-500 rpm.

 Hydro-generator is low speed machine compare to the steam turbine driven generator.

 Cooling System: The machines are air cooled, cooling is necessary to improve the
performance of generator.

 Protection : Protection against run away (high speed) speeds are provided, Over
voltage under voltage protection, Over load protection Over & under frequency
protection, Over temperature protection are main protections provided to generator.

11. Advantages & Disadvantages of Hydro-Electric Power Plant:

Advantages:
1. There is no fuel cost as water is available in nature.

2. There is no fuel transportation cost.

3. There is no necessity of fuel & ash handling equipment.

4. There is no air pollution.

5. It is very neat & clean plant.

6. Operating & maintenance cost are very low.

7. H.P.P can be put into service immediately.

8. There are no standby losses.

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9. Efficiency of plant is highest and does not change with age.

10. Power generation can be controlled quickly & rapidly without any difficult.

11. This plant is suitable for supplying power to variable load.

12. By controlling discharge of water precisely, constant speed & frequency can be
maintained.

13. The life of plant is longest.

14. Generation cost per unit (KWH) is lowest.

15. In addition to generation of electric energy H.P.P. is also useful for supply of drinking
water, supply of water for irrigation and control the flood.

Disadvantages:
1. High capital cost due to construction of dam.

2. It depends on nature as it require huge amount of water which is store during rainy season.

3. Firm power (Output) is totally depends on monsoon.

4. It takes long time for complete erecting of power plant.

5. It requires large area (catchment) area for storage of water.

6. As sites are away from load centre, so cost of transmission and losses in it are more.

7. There is limitation to select the site of HPP because of their requirements.

DEPARTMENT OF EEE Page 43

 Nuclear Power
Nuclear power plants provide about 17% of the world’s electricity. Nuclear power
technology in India has reached a state of maturity and the Department of Atomic Energy
(DAE) continues to take steps to develop it further. These steps are aimed at improving the
safety and availability of operating stations, reducing the gestation period of plants under
construction by using innovative management techniques, cost optimization and development
of mew reactor systems. At present in India 15 reactors are functioning at 6 sites (Tarapur,
Rawatbhata, Kalpakkam, Narora, Kakrapar and kaiga)
Nuclear Fuel
Nuclear fuel is any material that can be consumed to derive nuclear energy. The most
common type of nuclear fuel is fissile elements that can be made to undergo nuclear fission
chain reactions in a nuclear reactor the most common nuclear fuels are 235U and 239Pu. Not
all nuclear fuels are used in fission chain reactions
Nuclear Fission
When a neutron strikes an atom of uranium, the uranium splits into two lighter atoms and
releases heat simultaneously. Fission of heavy elements is an exothermic reaction which can
release large amounts of energy both as electromagnetic radiation and as kinetic energy of the
fragments
NUCLEAR CHAIN REACTIONS
A chain reaction refers to a process in which neutrons released in fission produce an
additional fission in at least one further nucleus. This nucleus in turn produces neutrons, and
the process repeats. If the process is controlled it is used for nuclear power or if uncontrolled
it is used for nuclear weapons

U235 + n → fission + 2 or 3 n + 200 MeV

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If each neutron releases two more neutrons, then the number of fissions doubles each
generation. In that case, in 10 generations there are 1,024 fissions and in 80 generations about
6 x 10 23 (a mole) fissions.

NUCLEAR REACTOR:
Main Parts of Nuclear Reactor:
1). control rod 5). Feed pump
2). steam generator 6). Condenser
3). steam turbine 7). Coolant tower
4). coolant pump
A nuclear reactor is a device in which nuclear chain reactions are initiated, controlled, and
sustained at a steady rate, as opposed to a nuclear bomb, in which the chain reaction occurs in
a fraction of a second and is uncontrolled causing an explosion. The most significant use of
nuclear reactors is as an energy source for the generation of electrical power for the power in
some ships. This is usually accomplished by methods that involve using heat from the nuclear
reaction to power steam turbines
1).Control Rods:
Control rods made of a material that absorbs neutrons are inserted into the bundle using a
mechanism that can rise or lower the control rods. Raising and lowering the control rods
allow operators to control the rate of nuclear reaction. When an operator wants the less heat,

DEPARTMENT OF EEE Page 45

the rods are lowered into the uranium bundle. The rods can also be lowered completely into
the uranium bundle to shut the reactor down in the case of an accident or to change the fuel.
The control rods essentially contain neutron absorbers like, boron, cadmium or indium.
2).Steam Generators:
Steam generators are heat exchangers used to convert water into steam from heat produced in
a nuclear reactor core. One or two steam generators can also be used depending upon the
reactor used. The coolant is maintained at a pressure of the order of 150 bar. Either ordinary
water or heavy water is used as the coolant.
3).Steam Turbine:
A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam,
and converts it into useful mechanical work. The operation of the turbine is similar to the one
used in thermal power plants. Various high-performance alloys and super-alloys have been
used for steam generator tubing.
4).Coolant pump:
The coolant pump pressurizes the coolant to pressures of the order of 155bar. The pressure of
the coolant loop is maintained almost constant with the help of the pump and a pressurizer
unit.
5).Feed pump
Steam coming out of the turbine, flows through the condenser for condensation and re-
circulated for the next cycle of operation. The feed pump circulates the condensed water in
the working fluid loop.
6).Condenser Condenser is a device or unit which is used to condense vapor into liquid. The
objective of the condenser are to reduce the turbine exhaust pressure to increase the
efficiency and to recover high quality feed water in the form of condensate & feed back it to
the steam generator without any further treatment.
Cooling Tower
Large quantities of water are required to condensate working fluid. Cooling towers are heat
removal devices used to transfer process waste heat to the atmosphere. Water circulating
through the condenser is taken to the cooling tower for cooling and reuse.
ADVANTAGES OF NUCLEAR POWER GENERATION:
 Nuclear power generation does emit relatively low amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2).
The emissions of green house gases and therefore the contribution of nuclear power
plants to global warming is therefore relatively little.

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  This technology is readily available; it does not have to be developed first.

 It is possible to generate a high amount of electrical energy in one single plant.

DISADVANTAGES OF NUCLEAR POWER GENERATION:

 The problem of radioactive waste is still an unsolved one. The waste from nuclear
energy is extremely dangerous and it has to be carefully looked after for several
thousand years (10'000 years according to United States Environmental Protection
Agency standards).

 High risks: Despite a generally high security standard, accidents can still happen. It is
technically impossible to build a plant with 100% security. A small probability of
failure will always last. The consequences of an accident would be absolutely
devastating both for human being as for the nature. The more nuclear power plants
(and nuclear waste storage shelters) are built, the higher is the probability of a
disastrous failure somewhere in the world.

 Nuclear power plants as well as nuclear waste could be preferred targets for terrorist
attacks. No atomic energy plant in the world could withstand an attack similar to 9/11
in Yew York. Such a terrorist act would have catastrophic effects for the whole
world.

 During the operation of nuclear power plants, radioactive waste is produced, which in
turn can be used for the production of nuclear weapons. In addition, the same know-
how used to design nuclear power plants can to a certain extent be used to build
nuclear weapons (nuclear proliferation).

 The energy source for nuclear energy is Uranium. Uranium is a scarce resource; its
supply is estimated to last only for the next 30 to 60 years depending on the actual
demand.

 The time frame needed for formalities, planning and building of a new nuclear power
generation plant is in the range of 20 to 30 years in the western democracies. In other
words: It is an illusion to build new nuclear power plants in a short time .

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Nuclear Power Reactors
Magnox Reactors
The six main commercial reactor types, two (Magnox and AGR) owe much to the very
earliest reactor designs in that they are graphite moderated and gas cooled. Magnox reactors
were built in the UK from 1956 to 1971 but have now been superseded.

The Magnox reactor is named after the magnesium alloy used to encase the fuel, which is
natural uranium metal. Fuel elements consisting of fuel rods encased in Magnox cans are

Figure : Magnox Reactor

Advanced Gas cooled Reactors

(β) In order to improve the cost effectiveness of this type of reactor, it was necessary to go to
higher temperatures to achieve higher thermal efficiencies and higher power densities to
reduce capital costs.


This entailed increases in cooling gas pressure and changing from Magnox to stainless
steel cladding and from uranium metal to uranium dioxide fuel. This in turn led to the need

DEPARTMENT OF EEE Page 48

for an increase in the proportion of U235 in the fuel. The resulting design, known as the
Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor, Or AG

Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR)

 The most widely used reactor type in the world is the Pressurized Water Reactor
(PWR) which uses enriched (about 3.2% U235) uranium dioxide as a fuel in
zirconium alloy cans.

 The fuel, which is arranged in arrays of fuel "pins" and interspersed with the movable
control rods, is held in a steel vessel through which water at high pressure (to suppress
boiling) is pumped to act as both a coolant and a moderator.

Figure: Pressurized Water Reactor

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Boiling Water Reactors (BWR)
 The second type of water cooled and moderated reactor does away with the steam
generator and, by allowing the water within the reactor circuit to boil, it raises steam
directly for electrical power generation. Such reactors, known as Boiling Water
Reactors (BWRs), throughout the world.

 This, however, leads to some radioactive contamination of the steam circuit and
turbine, which then requires shielding of these components in addition to that
surrounding the reactor.

Figure: Boiling Water Reactor

Comparison of PWR and BWR

Table 6: Comparison of PWR and BWR

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Disadvantages:

Fast Breeder Reactor

The Liquid Metal Fast Breeder (LMFBR) uses molten sodium as the coolant and runs on fuel
enriched with U-235. Instead of a moderator being employed, the core is surrounded by a
reflector, which bounces neutrons back into the core to help sustain the chain reaction. A
blanket of “fertile” material (U-238) is included above and below the fuel, to be converted
into fissile plutonium by capture of fast neutrons. The core is compact, with a high power

DEPARTMENT OF EEE Page 51

density. The molten sodium primary coolant transfers its heat to a secondary sodium loop,
which heats water in a third loop to raise steam and drive the turbine generators.
Development of fast reactors proceeds only in France, India, Japan, and Russia. The only
commercial power reactors of this type are in Kazakhstan and Russia. The British fast
reactor, which generated 240 megawatts, was closed down in the 1990s and is being
decommissioned

Figure: Fast Breeder Reactors

Factors for Site Selection of NPPs:

(a) Availability of Water: working fluid
(b) Distance from Populated Area: danger of radioactivity
(c) Nearness to the load centre: reduction in transmission cost
(d) Disposal of Waste: radioactive waste
(e) Accessibility by Rail and Road: transport of heavy equipment

THE IMPACT OF RADIOACTIVITY AND ITS HAZARDS

A nuclear Reactor produces alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays and neutrons e=which
can disturb the working of normal organisms.
Types of Radiations:
 alpha particles
 beta particles
 gamma rays
 neutrons

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Radioactive materials are composed of atoms that are unstable. An unstable atom gives off its excess
energy until it becomes stable. The energy emitted is radiation. Radiation has a cumulative effect.
The longer a person is exposed to radiation, the greater the effect. A high exposure to radiation can
cause serious illness or death.
Penetrating power

Alpha particles are absorbed by thin paper and can travel only a few centimeters in air. Beta
particles are absorbed by thin aluminum and can travel a meter or so in air. Gamma radiation
is absorbed by a few centimeters of lead and can travel many meters in air.
Deflection in an electric field.

ALPHA PARTICLES

 It is the heaviest particle (not a wave). It is produced when the heaviest elements decay.
 They are high-energy particles that are ejected from unstable nuclei.
 It is an helium atom and contains two neutrons and two protons.
 It leaves the nucleus of an unstable atom at a speed of 16,000 kilometers per second, around a
tenth the speed of light.
 The alpha particles are relatively large and heavy. As a result, alpha rays are not very penetrating
and are easily absorbed. A sheet of paper or a 3-cm layer of air is sufficient to stop them.
 Alpha radiation travels a very short distance through air.
 Alpha radiation is not able to penetrate skin.
 Alpha-emitting materials can be harmful to humans if the materials are inhaled, swallowed, or
absorbed through open wounds.

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 The delicate internal workings of the living cell forming the lining of the lungs or internal
organs, most certainly will be changed or killed outright by the energetic alpha
particle.
BETA PARTICLES
 Beta rays are much lighter energy particles.
 It is an energetic electron given off by the nucleus of unstable isotopes to restore an energy
balance.
 They leave the nucleus at a speed of 2, 70,000 kilometers per second.
 They can be stopped, for instance, by an aluminum sheet of few millimeters thick or by 3 meters
of air.
 Beta radiation may travel meters in air and is moderately penetrating.
 Beta particles are around 8000 times smaller than the alpha particles; it is capable of penetrating
much deeper into living matter.
 Beta radiation can penetrate human skin to the "germinal layer," where new skin cells are
produced. If beta-emitting contaminants are allowed to remain on the skin for a prolonged period
of time, they may cause skin injury.
 It damages some of the chemical links between the living molecules of the cell or cause some
permanent genetic change in the cell nucleus.
GAMMA RAYS
 They are very high energy "X-rays".
 It is an energetic photon or light wave in the same electromagnetic family as light and x-rays, but
is much more energetic and harmful.
 It is capable of damaging living cells as it slows down by transferring its energy to surrounding
cell components.
 They can travel many meters in air and many centimeters in human tissue.
 Dense materials are needed for shielding from gamma radiation.
 Gamma radiation accompanies the emission of alpha and beta radiation.
NEUTRONS
 They are produced in fission with a wide range of energy of 10Mev.
 They possess no charge.
 They are highly penetrating.
 Their effects are similar to that of Gamma rays.
Radiation Hazards:
Radioactive wastes, isotopes formed in nuclear reactors have high toxicity, if not
handled properly during transportation, operation, repair, storage or disposal will pollute
rivers, streams and atmosphere. The hazards caused may be external or internal.

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External Hazards:
The external hazards are caused when the body is bombarded by energetic

radiation from radioactive sources. The deep penetrating gamma rays, beta particles, and
neutrons. Penetrate through the skin and damage the internal tissues.
The radiation dose rate is measured in rem (roentgen equivalent mammal). This is a
unit of radiation damage that embodies both the magnitude of the dose and the relative
biological effectiveness of particular type of radiation.

The maximum integrated dose for a person of age A years is (A-18)× 5 rem.
Internal Hazards:
The internal hazard is caused either by food, or by inhalation or by breaking up of the skin by
radioactive radiation. It is very difficult to express the tolerance of the body as it depends on
many variables like,
1. Degree of retention of radioactive material in the body. If the material is retained for longer
time, it is capable of
doing more harm.
2. The fraction of the radioactive material which is passed to the critical tissues by the blood
stream. The greater will be
the harm.
3. The radio sensitivity of the tissues involved for example bone, lymph glands are more
vulnerable to energetic
radiation.
4. Size of organ involved. : If the organ is small the concentration of the radioactive material
is high which can cause
more damage.
5. Essentiality of organ. : The most essential organ damaged by radioactivity can cause early
death.
RADIOACTIVE WASTE:
Waste, by definition, is any material (solid materials such as process residues as well as
liquid and gaseous effluents) that has been or will be discarded as being of no further use.
A. Classification of waste on basis of radioactivity
1. Low level (90%)
2. Intermediate level (7%)

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3. High level(3%)
Low-level waste:
Generated from hospitals and industry, as well as the nuclear fuel cycle. Low-level wastes
include paper, rags, tools, clothing, filters. Some high-activity LLW requires shielding during
handling and transport but most LLW is suitable for shallow land burial
Intermediate-level waste
 Intermediate-level waste (ILW) contains higher amounts of radioactivity and in some
cases requires shielding.
 Includes resins, chemical sludge and metal reactor nuclear fuel cladding
 It may be solidified in concrete or bitumen for disposal
 Short-lived waste (mainly non-fuel materials from reactors) is buried in shallow
repositories
 Long-lived waste (from fuel and fuel reprocessing) is deposited in geological
repository
High-level waste:
 It contains fission products and transuranic elements generated in the reactor core.
 Though it is only 3% of total volume but it is responsible for 95% of total
radioactivity.
 It is highly radioactive and often hot.
 HLW is the most dangerous and the main candidate for geological disposal
 Certain radioactive elements (such as plutonium 239) in “spent” fuel will remain
thousands of years Tc-99 (half-life 220,000 years)
 I-129 (half-life 15.7 million years)
B.Management of radio-active wastes:
The basic steps involved in waste management are,
1. Pretreatment: Involves collection, segregation, Chemical adjustment & decontamination
2. Treatment: Involves changing the characteristics of waste,
3. Conditioning: Involves the operations that transform radio-active waste into a form
suitable for handling, transportation, storage & disposal.
4. Storage: To isolate the radio-active waste from environment.
5. Disposal: It involves the authorized emplacement of packages of radio-active waste in a
disposal facility.

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 UNIT-III
SOLAR & WIND POWER GENERATING SYSTEMS
Solar Power Generation: Role and Potential of Solar Energy Options, Principles of Solar
Radiation, Flat Plate and Concentrating Solar Energy Collectors, Different Methods of
Energy Storage – PV Cell- V-I Characteristics.
Wind Power Generation: Role and potential of Wind Energy Option, Horizontal and
Vertical Axis Wind Mills- Performance Characteristics- Power- Speed & Torque- Speed
Characteristics-Pitch & Yaw Controls – Power Electronics Application – Economic Aspects.

Role and potential of new and renewable source

India has a vast supply of renewable energy resources, and it has one of the largest programs
in the world for deploying renewable energy products and systems. Indeed, it is the only
country in the world to have an exclusive ministry for renewable energy development, the
Ministry of Non Conventional Energy Sources (MNES). Since its formation, the Ministry has
launched one of the world’s largest and most ambitious programs on renewable energy.
Based on various promotional efforts put in place by MNES, significant progress is being
made in power generation from renewable energy sources. In October, MNES was renamed
the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Specifically, 3,700 MW are currently powered
by renewable energy sources (3.5 percent of total installed capacity). This is projected to be
10,000 MW from renewable energy by 2012. The key drivers for renewable energy are the
following: o The demand-supply gap, especially as population increases o A large untapped
potential o Concern for the environment o The need to strengthen India’s energy security o
Pressure on high-emission industry sectors from their shareholders o A viable solution for
rural electrification Also, with a commitment to rural electrification, the Ministry of Power
has accelerated the Rural Electrification Program with a target of 100,000 villages by 2012.
Introduction In recent years, India has emerged as one of the leading destinations for
investors from developed countries. This attraction is partially due to the lower cost of
manpower and good quality production. The expansion of investments has brought benefits
of employment, development, and growth in the quality of life, but only to the major cities.
This sector only represents a small portion of the total population. The remaining population
still lives in very poor conditions. India is now the eleventh largest economy in the world,
fourth in terms of purchasing power. It is poised to make tremendous economic strides over
the next ten years, with significant development already in the planning stages. This report

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gives an overview of the renewable energies market in India. We look at the current status of
renewable markets in India, the energy needs of the country, forecasts of consumption and
production, and we assess whether India can power its growth and its society with renewable
resources. The Ministry of Power has set an agenda of providing Power to All by 2012. It
seeks to achieve this objective through a comprehensive and holistic approach to power
sector development envisaging a six level intervention strategy at the National, State, SEB,
Distribution, Feeder and Consumer levels.

Environmental impacts of solar energy

Every energy generation and transmission method affects the environment. As it is obvious
conventional generating options can damage air, climate, water, land and wildlife, landscape,
as well as raise the levels of harmful radiation. Renewable technologies are substantially safer
offering a solution to many environmental and social problems associated with fossil and
nuclear fuels (EC,1995,1997). Solar energy technologies (SETs) provide obvious
environmental advantages in comparison to the conventional energy sources, thus
contributing to the sustainable development of human activities Not counting the depletion of
the exhausted natural resources, their main advantage is related to the reduced CO2
emissions, and, normally, absence of any air emissions or waste products during their
operation. Concerning the environment, the use of SETs has additional positive implications
such as:

* Reduction of the emissions of the greenhouse gases (mainly CO2,NO x) and prevention of
toxic Gas emissions (SO2,particulates)

* Reclamation of degraded land;

* Reduction of the required transmission lines of the electricity grids; and

* improvement of the quality of water resources The basic research in solar energy is being
carried in universities and educational and research institutions, public sector institution,
BHEL and Central Electronic Limited and carrying out a coordinated program of research of
solar energy. The application of solar energy is

1. Heating and cooling residential buildings

2. Solar water heating

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3. Solar drying of agricultural and chemical products.

4. Solar distillation of a small community scale

5. Salt production by evaporation of sea water

6. Solar cookers

7. Solar engines for water pumping

8. Food refrigeration

9. Bio conversion and wind energy and which are indirect source of solar energy

10. Solar furnaces

11. Solar electric power generation by

i) Solar ponds

ii) Steam generators heated by rotating reflectors

iii) Reflectors with lenses and pipes for fluid circulation

12. Solar photovoltaic cells which can be used for conversion of solar energy directly into
electricity (or) for water pumping in rural agriculture purposes.

PRESENT SENERIO: TPP - 65.34%

HYDRO - 21.53%

NUCLEAR - 2.7%

RENEWABLE - 10.42%

WIND CAPACITY - 14550 MW.

20,000 MW solar by 2022. Installed power generation capacity of India 181.558 GW Per
capita energy consumption stood at 704 KW. 1/3 GW of installed capacity by 2017 Solar
Radiation Solar energy, received in the form of radiation, can be converted directly or
indirectly in to other forms of energy, such as heat and electricity. The major draw backs of
the extensive application of solar energy of

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1. The intermittent and variable manner in which it arrives at the earth’s surface and

2. The large area require to collect the energy at a useful rate. Energy is radiated by the sun as
electromagnetic waves of which 99% have wave lengths in the range of 0.2 to 4.0 micro
meter (1 micro meter = 10-6 meter) Solar energy reaching the top of the earth’s atmosphere
consists of about 8% ultra violet radiation [short wave length >0.39 micrometer] 46%
visible light [0.39 to 0.78 micrometer]

 46 % infrared [0.78 micro meter above]

 Solar constant the sun is a large sphere of very hot gases, the heat being generated by
various kinds of fusion reactions. Its diameter is 1.39 X 106 km while that of earth is 1.27 X
104 km. the mean distance between the two is 1.5 X 108 km. although the sun is large, its
subtends angle of only 32 min. at the earth’s surface. The brightness of the sun varies from its
center to its edge.

However the calculation purpose the brightness all over the solar disc is uniform. The total
radiation from the sun is 5762 degrees K The rate at which solar energy arise at the top of the
atmosphere is called the solar constant Isc . This is the amount of energy received in unit time
on a unit area perpendicular to the sun’s direction at the mean distance of the earth from the
sun. The solar constant value varies up to 3 % throughout the year, because the distance
between the sun and the earth varies little throughout the year. The earth is close set of the
sun during the summer and farthest during the winter.

This variation in distance produces sinusoidal variation in the intensity of solar radiation I
that reaches the earth. ISC = 1367 watts/m2

/ = 1+0.033 COS (360 /365) .

Where n is the day of the year. Spectral distribution of solar radiation intensity at the outer
limit of the atmosphere the luminosity of the Sun is about 3.86 x 1026 watts. This is the total
power radiated out into space by the Sun. Most of this radiation is in the visible and infrared
part of the electromagnetic spectrum, with less than 1 % emitted in the radio, UV and X-ray
spectral bands. The sun’s energy is radiated uniformly in all directions. Because the Sun is
about 150 million kilometres from the Earth, and because the Earth is about 6300 km in
radius, only 0.000000045% of this power is intercepted by our planet.

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This still amounts to a massive 1.75 x 1017 watts. For the purposes of solar energy capture,
we normally talk about the amount of power in sunlight passing through a single square
metre face-on to the sun, at the Earth's distance from the Sun. The power of the sun at the
earth, per square metre is called the solar constant and is approximately 1370 watts per square
metre (W m-2). The solar constant actually varies by +/- 3% because of the Earth's slightly
elliptical orbit around the Sun. The sun-earth distance is smaller when the Earth is at
perihelion (first week in January) and larger when the Earth is at aphelion (first week in July).
Some people, when talking about the solar constant, correct for this distance variation, and
refer to the solar constant as the power per unit area received at the average Earth-solar
distance of one “Astronomical Unit” or AU which is 149.59787066 million kilometres. There
is also another small variation in the solar constant which is due to a variation in the total
luminosity of the Sun itself.

This variation has been measured by radiometers aboard several satellites since the late
1970's. The graph below is a composite graph produced by the World Radiation Centre and
shows that our Sun is actually a (slightly) variable star. The variation in the solar constant can
be seen to be about 0.1% over a period of 30 years. Some researchers have tried to
reconstruct this variation, by correlating it to sunspot numbers, back over the last 400 years,
and have suggested that the Sun may have varied in its power output by up to one percent. It
has also been suggested that this variation might explain some terrestrial temperature
variations. It is interesting to note that the average G-type star (the class of star the Sun falls
into) typically shows a much larger variation of about 4%.

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Solar Radiation geometry
In Solar Radiation geometry the following terms are important:
Horizon is the horizontal plane that extends from the point where the observer is standing, to
Infinity, straight through space. Since we're only working with relatively short distances
(compared to the Universe), a line extending N-S will be quite sufficient.
Altitude (A) is the angle of the sun over the horizon. In this problem, we will be working with
the sun at noon, so it will either be over the N or S horizon.
Zenith (Z) is the angle that the sun is from directly overhead, and it is equal to 90-A. It, too,
can be over the S or N horizon, but there is little need to state it.
Declination (D) is the latitude at which the sun is directly overhead. It is always between 23.5
Nand 23.5 S latitude, those occurring on the Solstices.
Latitude (L) is the location N or S of the equator at which the observer is located. (It is
determined by radii from the center of Earth at different angles to the equator. If such an
angle is swept along the surface of the planet, it draws a circle.)
Solar radiation data is necessary for calculating cooling load for buildings, prediction of local
air temperature and for the estimating power that can be generated from photovoltaic cells.
Solar radiation falling on the surface of the earth is measured by instruments called
pyranometers.
The weather service in most countries have many stations to measure solar radiation using
pyranometers.
In India pyranometers have been used for a long time.

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Generally flat plate collectors are mounted on roofs or sloping walls. In most of these
collectors, the absorber element is made of a metal such as galvanised iron, aluminium,
copper etc. and the cover is usually of glass of 4 mm thickness. The back of the absorber is
insulated with glass wool, asbestos wool or some other insulating material. The casing,
enclosing all the components of the collector is either made
of wood or some light metal like aluminium. The cost, with such materials, is rather too high
to be acceptable for common use. As the temperatures needed for space heating are rather
low, plastics are being considered as potential material for fabrication of various components
of the flat, plate collector.
This would make solar energy systems comparable with other energy systems.
Concentrating type are again divided into Focus type and Non-focus type

Solar Radiation Measuring Instruments (Radiometers)

A radiometer absorbs solar radiation at its sensor, transforms it into heat and measures the
resulting amount of heat to ascertain the level of solar radiation. Methods of measuring heat
include taking out heat flux as a temperature change (using a water flow pyrheliometer, a
silver-disk pyrheliometer or a bimetallic pyranograph) or as a thermo electromotive force
(using a thermoelectric pyrheliometer or a thermo electric pyranometer). In current operation,
types using a thermopile are generally used.
The radiometers used for ordinary observation are pyrheliometers and pyranometers that
measure direct solar radiation and global solar radiation, respectively, and these instruments
are described in this section. For details of other radiometers such as measuring instruments
for diffuse sky radiation and net radiation, refer to ”Guide to Meteorological Instruments and
Observation Methods” and “Compendium of Lecture Notes on Meteorological Instruments
for Training Class III and Class IV Meteorological Personnel”published by WMO.
Pyrheliometers
A pyrheliometer is used to measure direct solar radiation from the sun and its marginal
periphery. To measure direct solar radiation correctly, its receiving surface must be arranged
to be normal to the solar direction. For this reason, the instrument is usually mounted on a
sun-tracking device called an equatorial mount.
The structure of an Angstrom electrical compensation pyrheliometeris shown in Figure.
This is a reliable instrument used to observe direct solar radiation, and has long been accepted
as a working standard. However, its manual operation requires experience.

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This pyrheliometer has a rectangular aperture, two manganin-strip sensors (20.0 mm × 2.0
mm ×0.02 mm) and several diaphragms to let only direct sunlight reach the sensor The sensor
surface is painted optical black and has uniform absorption characteristics for short-wave
radiation. A copper constantan thermocouple is attached to the rear of each sensor strip, and
the thermocouple is connected to a galvanometer. The sensor strips also work as electric
resistors and generate heat when a current flows across them. When solar irradiance is
measured with this type of pyrheliometer, the small shutter on the front face of the cylinder
shields one sensor strip from sunlight, allowing it to reach only the other sensor. A
temperature difference is therefore produced between the two sensor strips because one
absorbs solar radiation and the other does not, and a thermo electromotive force proportional
to this difference induces current flow through the galvanometer. Then, a current is supplied
to the cooler sensor strip (the one shaded from solar radiation) until the pointer in the
galvanometer indicates zero, at which point the temperature raised by solar radiation is
compensated by Joule heat. A value for direct solar irradiance is obtained by converting the
compensated current at this time. If S is the intensity of direct solar irradiance and i is the
current, then S = Ki2, where K is a constant intrinsic to the instrument and is determined
from the size and electric resistance of the sensor strips and the absorption coefficient of their
surfaces. The value of K is usually determined through comparison with an upper-class
standard pyrheliometer. Pyranometers: A pyranometer is used to measure global solar
radiation falling on a horizontal surface. Its sensor has a horizontal radiation-sensing surface
that absorbs solar radiation energy from the whole sky (i.e. a solid angle of 2π sr) and
transforms this energy into heat. Global solar radiation can be ascertained by measuring this

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heat energy. Most pyranometers in general use are now the thermopile type, although
bimetallic pyranometers are occasionally found.

Thermoelectric pyranometer is shown in Figure. The instrument’s radiation-sensing

element has basically the same structure as that of a thermoelectric pyrheliometer. Another
similarity is that the temperature difference derived between the radiation-sensing element
(the hot junction) and the reflecting surface (the cold junction) that serves as a temperature
reference point is expressed by a thermopile as anthermoelectromotive force. In the case of a
pyranometer, methods of ascertaining the temperature difference are as follows:
1) Several pairs of thermocouples are connected in series to make a thermopile that detects
the temperature difference between the black and white radiation-sensing surfaces.
2) The temperature difference between two black radiation-sensing surfaces with differing
areas Is detected by a thermopile.
3) The temperature difference between a radiation-sensing surface painted solid black and a
Metallic block with high heat capacity is detected by a thermopile.

Sunshine recorder
The duration of bright sunshine in a day is measured by means of sun shine recorder. The
sun’s rays are focused by a glass sphere to a point on a card strip held in a groove in spherical
bowl mounted concentrically with the sphere. Whenever there is a bright sun shine the image
formed is intensive enough to burn a part on the card strip. through out the day as sun moves
across the sky, the image moves along the strip. Thus, a burnt trace whose length is
proportional to the duration of sun shine is obtained on the strip.

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Solar Radiation Data
Most radiation data is measured for horizontal surfaces. As shown in figure. It is seen a fairly,
smooth variations with the maximum occurring around noon is obtained on a clear day.In
contrast an irregular variation with many peaks and valleys may be obtained on a cloudy day.
Peak values are generally measured in April or may with parts of Rajasthan or Gujarat
receiving over 600 Langley’s per day.
During the monsoon and winter months, the daily global radiation decreases to about 300-
400 longley per day.
Annual average daily diffuse radiation received over the whole country is around 175
longlays per day.
The maximum value is about 300 langleys in Gujarat in July, while the minimum values
between 75 and 100 langleys per day, are measured over many parts of the country during
November and December as winter sets in.
Solar radiation on tilted surface:
The rate of receipt of solar energy on a given surface on the ground depends on the
orientation of the surface with reference to the sun. A fully sun – tracking surface that always
faces the sun receives the maximum possible solar energy at the particular location.
A surface of the same area oriented in any other direction will receive a smaller amount of
radiation because solar radiation is such a dilute form of energy, it is desirable to capture as
much as possible on a ground area. Most of the solar collectors or solar radiation collecting
devices are tilted at an angle to horizontal surface with Y=0 facing south for tilted surface.
Cosθ = Sinδ Sin (ф – s) + Cos δ Cos ω Cos (ф – s)
For horizontal surfaces Cos θZ= Sin ф Sin δ + Cos ф Cos δ Cos ω

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Sensible heat storage:
The use of sensible heat energy storage materials is the easiest method of storage. In practice,
water, sand, gravel, soil, etc. can be considered as materials for energy storage, in which the
largest heat capacity of water, so water is used more often. In the 70’s and 80’s, the use of
water and soil for cross-seasonal storage of solar energy was reported. But the material’s
sensible heat is low, and it limits energy storage.

Latent heat-storage:
Latent heat-storage units are storing thermal energy in latent (= hidden, dormant)mode by
changing the state of aggregation of the storage medium. Applicable storage media are called
"phase change materials" (PCM).. Commonly salts crystal is used in low-temperature storage,
such as sodium sulfate decahydrate /calcium chloride, sodium hydrogen phosphate 12-water.
However, we must solve the cooling and layering issues in order to ensure the operating
temperature and service life. Medium solar storage temperature is generally higher than 100
℃but under 500 ℃, usually it is around 300 ℃. Suitable for medium temperature storage of
materials are: high-pressure hot water, organic fluids, eutectic salt. Solar heat storage
temperature is generally above 500 ℃,the materials currently being tested are: metal sodium
and molten salt. Extremely high temperature above 1000 ℃storage, fire-resistant ball alumina
and germanium oxide can be used.
Chemical, thermal energy storage:
Thermal energy storage is making the use of chemical reaction to store heat. It has the
advantage of large amount in heat, small in volume, light in weight. The product of chemical
reaction can be stored separately for a long time. It occurs exothermic reaction when it is
needed. it has to meet the needs of below conditions to use chemical reaction in heat reserve:
good in reaction reversibility,

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no secondary reaction, rapid reaction, easy to separate the resultant and reserve it stably.
Reactant and resultant are innoxious ,uninflammable, large in heat of reaction and low price
of reactant. Now some of the chemical endothermic reaction could meet the needs of above
conditions. Like pyrolysis
reaction of Ca(OH)2, Using the above endothermic reaction to store heat and release the heat
when it is necessary. But the dehydration reaction temperature in high atmospheric pressure
is higher than 500 degrees. It is difficult to use solar energy to complete dehydration reaction.
We can use catalyst to decrease the reaction temperature, but still very high. So it is still in
testing time of heat14reserve in chemistry.
Plastic crystal thermal energy storage:
In 1984, the U.S. market launched plastic crystal materials for home heating. Plastic crystal’s
scientific name is Neopentyl Glycol (NPG), it and the liquid crystal are similar to three-
dimensional periodic crystals, but the mechanical properties are like plastic. It can store and
release thermal energy in the constant temperature, but not to rely on solid-liquid phase
change to store thermal energy, it stores the energy through the plastic crystalline molecular
structure occurring solid - solid phase change. When plastic crystals are at constant
temperature 44c, it absorbs solar energy and stores heat during the day, and releases the heat
during the night.

Solar thermal energy storage tank:

Solar pond is a kind of a certain salt concentration gradient of salt ponds, and it can be used
for acquisition and storage of solar energy. Because of its simple, low cost, and it is suit to
large-scale applied so it has attracted people's attention. After the 60’s, many countries have
started study on solar pond, Israel has also built three solar pond power plants.
Solar Collectors
Solar collectors are the key component of active solar-heating systems. Solar collectors
gather the sun's energy, transform its radiation into heat, then transfer that heat to water, solar
fluid, or air. The solar thermal energy can be used in solar water heating systems, solar pool
heaters, and solar space-heating systems. There are several types of solar collectors:
 Flat-plate collectors
 Evacuated-tube collectors

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Residential and commercial building applications that require temperatures below 200°F
typically use flat-plate collectors, whereas those requiring temperatures higher than 200°F
use evacuated-tube collectors.
Flat-plate collectors
Flat-plate collectors are the most common solar collector for solar water-heating systems in
homes and solar space heating. A typical flat-plate collector is an insulated metal box with a
glass or plastic cover (called the glazing) and a dark-colored absorber plate. These collectors
heat liquid or air at temperatures less than 180°F.Flat-plate collectors are used for residential
water heating and hydronic space-heating installations.

Liquid flat-plate collectors heat liquid as it flows through tubes in or adjacent to the
absorber plate. The simplest liquid systems use potable household water, which is heated as it
passes directly through the collector and then flows to the house. Solar pool heating This
home in Nevada has an integral collector storage (ICS) system to provide hot water also uses
liquid flat-plate collector technology, but the collectors are typically unglazed as in figure
below.

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 Unglazed solar collectors typically used for swimming pool heating.
Air flat-plate collectors are used primarily for solar space heating. The absorber plates in air
collectors can be metal sheets, layers of screen, or non-metallic materials. The air flows past
the absorber by using natural convection or a fan. Because air conducts heat much less
readily than liquid does, less heat is transferred from an air collector's absorber than from a
liquid collector's absorber, and air collectors are typically less efficient than liquid collectors.

Air flat-plate collectors are used for space heating.

Evacuated-tube collectors
Evacuated-tube collectors can achieve extremely high temperatures (170°F to 350°F), making
them more appropriate for cooling applications and commercial and industrial application.
However, evacuated-tube collectors are more expensive than flat-plate collectors, with unit
area costs about twice that of flat-plate collectors. Evacuated-tube collectors are efficient at
high temperatures. The collectors are usually made of parallel rows of transparent glass tubes.

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Each tube contains a glass outer tube and metal absorber tube attached to a fin. The fin is
covered with a coating that absorbs solar energy well, but which inhibits radiative heat loss.
Air is removed, or evacuated, from the space between the two glass tubes to form a vacuum,
which eliminates conductive and convective heat loss. A new evacuated-tube design is
available from the Chinese manufacturers, such as: Beijing Sunda Solar Energy Technology
Co. Ltd. The "dewar" design features a vacuum contained between two concentric glass
tubes, with the absorber selective coating on the inside tube. Water is typically allowed to
thermosyphon down and back out the inner cavity to transfer the heat to the storage tank.
There are no glass-to-metal seals. This type of evacuated tube has the potential to become
cost-competitive with flat plates.

Concentrating collectors
Unlike solar (photovoltaic) cells, which use light to produce electricity, concentrating solar
power systems generate electricity with heat. Concentrating solar collectors use mirrors and
lenses to concentrate and focus sunlight onto a thermal receiver, similar to a boiler tube. The
receiver absorbs and converts sunlight into heat. The heat is then transported to a steam
generator or engine where it is converted into electricity. There are three main types of
concentrating solar power systems: parabolic troughs, dish/engine systems, and central
receiver systems.
These technologies can be used to generate electricity for a variety of applications, ranging
from remote power systems as small as a few kilowatts (kW) up to grid-connected
applications of 200-350 megawatts (MW) or more. A concentrating solar power system that
produces 350MW of electricity displaces the energy equivalent of 2.3 million barrels of oil.
Trough Systems

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 Fig: A parabolic trough
These solar collectors use mirrored parabolic troughs to focus the sun's energy to a fluid-
carrying receiver tube located at the focal point of a parabolically curved trough reflector (see
Fig.1 above). The energy from the sun sent to the tube heat soil flowing through the tube, and
the heat energy is then used to generate electricity in a conventional steam generator. Many
troughs placed in parallel rows are called a "collector field." The troughs in the field are all
aligned along a north south axis so they can track the sun from east to west during the day,
ensuring that the sun is continuously focused on the receiver pipes. Individual trough systems
currently can generate about 80 MW of electricity. Trough designs can incorporate thermal
storage—setting aside the heat transfer fluid in its hot phase—allowing for electricity
generation several hours into the evening. Currently, all parabolic trough plants are “hybrids,"
meaning they use fossil fuels to supplement the solar output during periods of low solar
radiation.

SOLAR ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS

Storage of Solar energy in a solar system may:
 Permit solar energy to be captured when insulation is high to be used when the need
arises.
 Deliver electric load power demand during times when insolation is below normal or
nonexistent.
Also caters to delivering short power-peaks
 Be located closed to the load
 Improve the reliability of solar thermal and solar PV systems
 Permit a better match between energy input and load demand output
 Some of the important storage methods are:
 Mechanical Energy Storage – pumped storage, compressed air storage, flywheel
storage
 Chemical Energy Storage – Batteries storage, Hydrogen storage and reversible
chemical reactions storage
 Electromagnetic energy storage
 Electrostatic energy storage
 Thermal (heat) energy storage – Sensible heat storage and Latent heat storage
Biological Storage

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  Thermal (heat) energy storage
Energy storage may be in the form of sensible heat of solids or liquid medium, as heat of
fusion in chemical systems or as chemical energy of products in the reversible chemical
reaction. Mech energy could be converted to P.E. and stored in elevated fluids .
Energy can be stored by virtue of latent heat of change of phase of the storage medium.
Phase-change materials like Glaubers salt have considerably higher thermal energy storage
densities.
Applications of Solar Energy:
 Three broad categories of possible large scale applications of solar power are:
 The heating and cooling of residential and commercial buildings;
 The chemical and biological conversion of organic material to liquid, solid and
gaseous fuels
 Conversion of solar energy to electricity.
 Solar distillation, pumping, solar cooking etc
The use of solar energy for generation of electricity is costly as compared to conventional
methods.
However, due to scarcity of fuel, solar energy will certainly find a place in planning the
national energy resources.
Residential cooling and heating A flat plate collector is located on the roof of a house, which
collects the solar energy. The cooling water is pumped through the tubes of the solar
collector.
The heat is transferred from the collector to the water and the hot water is stored in a storage
tank which may be located at ground level or in the basement of the house. Hot water is then
utilized to heat or cool the house by adjusting the automatic valve.
A separate circuit is there to supply hot water. Thus all the three requirements i.e., space
cooling, heating and water heating

Solar PV Cells:
The solar cells operate on the principle of photo electricity i.e., electrons are liberated from
the surface of a body when light is incident on it. Backed by semi-conductor technology, it is
now possible to utilize the phenomenon of photo-electricity.
It is known that if an n-type semi-conductor is brought in contact with a p-type material, a
contact potential difference is set-up at the junction (Schottky effect), due to diffusion of

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electrons. When the ptypematerial is exposed to light, its electrons get excited, by the photons
of light, and pass into the n-type semi-conductor. Thus, an electric current is generated in a
closed circuit. The pn junction silicon solar cells have emerged as the most important source
of long duration power supply necessary for space vehicles. These cells are actuated by both,
direct Sun rays and diffuse light. The efficiency of silicon solar cells increases with
decreasing temperature. In cold weather the decreased luminous flux is compensated for, by
higher efficiency. The efficiency of these solar cells varies from 15to 20%.Although the
energy from the Sun is available free of cost, the cost of fabrication and installation of
systems, for utilization of solar energy, is often too high to be economically viable. In order
to make solar installations economically attractive, plastic materials are being increasingly
used for the fabrication of various components of the system.
The efficiency of solar heating/cooling installation depends on the efficiency of collection of
solar energy and its transfer to the working fluid (e.g. water, air etc.).There are two main
classes of collectors. The flat plate collector is best suited for low and intermediate
temperature applications (40°–60°, 80°–120°C) which include water heating for buildings, air
heating and small industrial applications like agricultural drying etc. The concentrating
collectors are usually employed for power generation and industrial process heating.
Working of Photovoltaic Plant:

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Photovoltaic electricity generation
Photovoltaic electricity generation uses the energy of light radiation to move electrons
between two layers of semi-conductors. The principle is illustrated in figure 13.The
photovoltaic cell consists of two layers of semiconductors’-layer Si doped with phosphor P
(excess electrons)p-layer Si doped with boron B (excess electron gaps)Each layer is
connected to a conductor. Light energy (photons) with energy above a threshold value
generates electron-hole pairs.Electrones diffuse from n-region to p-region and holes diffuse in
the other direction. This results in a potential difference and if the conductors of each side are
connected, an electrical current can be maintained. The current is conducted through
“fingers” to a bus bar. The open circuit voltage is about 0,6 V.

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V-I Characteristics of a Photovoltaic Cell

where I0 = "dark saturation current"

q = electronic charge
V = applied voltage across the terminals of the diode
n = ideality factor
k = Boltzmann’s constant
T = temperature
IL = light generated current

FIG: Circuit for I-V characteristics of solar cell

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 Fig. : A typical I-V curve and power curve of a solar cell

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History of Wind-Mills:
The wind is a by-product of solar energy. Approximately 2% of the sun's energy reaching the
earth is converted into wind energy. The surface of the earth heats and cools unevenly,
creating atmospheric pressure zones that make air flow from high- to low pressure areas. The
wind has played an important role in the history of human civilization. The first known use of
wind dates back 5,000 years to Egypt, where boats used sails to travel from shore to shore.
The first true windmill, a machine with vanes attached to an axis to produce circular motion,
may have been built as early as 2000 B.C. in ancient Babylon.By the 10th century A.D.,
windmills with wind-catching surfaces having 16 feet length and 30 feet height were grinding
grain in the areas in eastern Iran and Afghanistan. The earliest written references to working
wind machines in western world date from the12th century. These too were used for milling
grain. It was not until a few hundred years later that windmills were modified to pump water
and reclaim much of Holland from thesea.
The multi-vane "farm windmill" of the American Midwest and West was invented in the
United States during the latter half of the l9th century. In 1889 there were 77 wind mill
factories in the United States, and by the turn of the century, windmills had become a major
American export. Until the diesel engine came along, many transcontinental rail routes in the
U.S. depended on large multi-vane windmills to pump water for steam locomotives. Farm
windmills are still being produced and used, though in reduced numbers. They are best suited
for pumping ground water in small quantities to livestock water tanks. In the1930s and 1940s,
hundreds of thousands of electricity producing wind turbines were built in the U.S. They had
two or three thin blades which rotated at high speeds to drive electrical generators. These
wind turbines provided electricity to farms beyond the reach of power lines and were
typically used to charge storage batteries, operate radio receivers and power a light bulb. By
the early 1950s, however, the extension of the central power grid to nearly every American
household, via the Rural Electrification Administration, eliminated the market for these
machines. Wind turbine development lay nearly dormant for the next 20 years.
A typical modern windmill looks as shown in the following figure. The wind-mill contains
three blades about a horizontal axis installed on a tower. A turbine connected toa generator is
fixed about the horizontal axis.
Like the weather in general, the wind can be unpredictable. It varies from place to place, and
from moment to moment. Because it is invisible, it is not easily measured without special
instruments. Wind velocity is affected by the trees, buildings, hills and valleys around us.

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Wind is a diffuse energy source that cannot be contained or stored for use elsewhere or at
another time.
Classification of Wind-mills:
Wind turbines are classified into two general types: Horizontal axis and Vertical axis. A
horizontal axis machine has its blades rotating on an axis parallel to the ground as shown in
the above figure. A vertical axis machine has its blades rotating on an axis perpendicular to
the ground. There are a number of available designs for both and each type has certain
advantages and disadvantages. However, compared with the horizontal axis type, very few
vertical axis machines are available commercially.
Horizontal Axis:
This is the most common wind turbine design. In addition to being parallel to the ground, the
axis of blade rotation is parallel to the wind flow. Some machines are designed to
operate in an upwind mode, with the blades upwind of the tower. In this case, a tail vaneis
usually used to keep the blades facing into the wind. Other designs operate in adown wind
mode so that the wind passes the tower before striking the blades. Without a tail vane, the
machine rotor naturally tracks the wind in a downwind mode. Some very large wind turbines
use a motor-driven mechanism that turns the machine in response to a wind direction sensor
mounted on the tower. Commonly found horizontal axis wind mills are aero-turbine mill with
35% efficiency and farm mills with 15% efficiency.
Vertical Axis:
Although vertical axis wind turbines have existed for centuries, they are not as common as
their horizontal counterparts. The main reason for this is that they do not take advantage of
the higher wind speeds at higher elevations above the ground as well as horizontal axis
turbines. The basic vertical axis designs are the Darrieus, which has curved blades and
efficiency of 35%, the Giromill, which has straight blades, and efficiency of 35%, and the
Savonius, which uses scoops to catch the wind and the efficiency of 30%. A vertical axis
machine need not be oriented with respect to wind direction. Because the shaft is vertical, the
transmission and generator can be mounted at ground level allowing easier servicing and a
lighter weight, lower cost tower. Although vertical axis wind turbines have these advantages,
their designs are not as efficient at collecting energy from the wind as are the horizontal
machine designs. The following figures show all the above mentioned mills.

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DEPARTMENT OF EEE Page 80
There is one more type of wind-mill called Cyclo-gyro wind-mill with very high efficiency of
about 60%. However, it is not very stable and is very sensitive to wind direction. It is also
very complex to build.

Main Components of a wind-mill :

Following figure shows typical components of a horizontal axis wind mill.

Rotor:
The portion of the wind turbine that collects energy from the wind is called the rotor. The
rotor usually consists of two or more wooden, fiber glass or metal blades which rotate about
an axis (horizontal or vertical) at a rate determined by the wind speed and the shape of the
blades. The blades are attached to the hub, which in turn is attached to the main shaft.
Drag Design:
Blade designs operate on either the principle of drag or lift. For the drag design, the wind
literally pushes the blades out of the way. Drag powered wind turbines are characterized by
slower rotational speeds and high torque capabilities. They are useful for the pumping,
sawing or grinding work. For example, a farm-type windmill must develop high torque at
start-up in order to pump, or lift, water from a deep well.
Lift Design:
The lift blade design employs the same principle that enables airplanes, kites and birds to fly.
The blade is essentially an airfoil, or wing. When air flows past the blade, a wind speed and
pressure differential is created between the upper and lower blade surfaces. The pressure at
the lower surface is greater and thus acts to "lift" the blade. When blades are attached to a

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central axis, like a wind turbine rotor, the lift is translated into rotational motion. Lift-
powered wind turbines have much higher rotational speeds than drag types and therefore well
suited for electricity generation.

Tip Speed Ratio:

The tip-speed is the ratio of the rotational speed of the blade to the wind speed. The larger
this ratio, the faster the rotation of the wind turbine rotor at a given wind speed. Electricity
generation requires high rotational speeds. Lift-type wind turbines have maximum tip-speed
ratios of around 10, while drag-type ratios are approximately 1.Given the high rotational
speed requirements of electrical generators, it is clear that the lift-type wind turbine is most
practical for this application.
The number of blades that make up a rotor and the total area they cover affect wind turbine
performance. For a lift-type rotor to function effectively, the wind must flow smoothly over
the blades. To avoid turbulence, spacing between blades should be great enough so that one
blade will not encounter the disturbed, weaker air flow caused by the blade which passed
before it. It is because of this requirement that most wind turbines have only two or three
blades on their rotors.
Generator:
The generator is what converts the turning motion of a wind turbine's blades into electricity.
Inside this component, coils of wire are rotated in a magnetic field to produce electricity.
Different generator designs produce either alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC),
and they are available in a large range of output power ratings. The generator’s rating, or size,
is dependent on the length of the wind turbine's blades because more energy is captured by
longer blades.
It is important to select the right type of generator to match intended use. Most home and
office appliances operate on 240 volt, 50 cycles AC. Some appliances can operate on either
AC or DC, such as light bulbs and resistance heaters, and many others can be adapted to run
on DC. Storage systems using batteries store DC and usually are configured at voltages of
between 12 volts and 120 volts.
Generators that produce AC are generally equipped with features to produce the correct
voltage of 240 V and constant frequency 50 cycles of electricity, even when the wind speed is
fluctuating.
DC generators are normally used in battery charging applications and for operating DC

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appliances and machinery. They also can be used to produce AC electricity with the use of an
inverter, which converts DC to AC.
Transmission:
The number of revolutions per minute (rpm) of a wind turbine rotor can range between 40
rpm and 400 rpm, depending on the model and the wind speed. Generators typically require
rpm's of 1,200 to 1,800. As a result, most wind turbines require a gear-box transmission to
increase the rotation of the generator to the speeds necessary for efficient electricity
production. Some DC-type wind turbines do not use transmissions. Instead, they have a direct
link between the rotor and generator. These are known as direct drive systems. Without a
transmission, wind turbine complexity and maintenance requirements are reduced, but a
much larger generator is required to deliver the same power output as the AC-type wind
turbines.
Tower:
The tower on which a wind turbine is mounted is not just a support structure. It also raises the
wind turbine so that its blades safely clear the ground and so it can reach the stronger winds
at higher elevations. Maximum tower height is optional in most cases, except where zoning
restrictions apply. The decision of what height tower to use will be based on the cost of taller
towers versus the value of the increase in energy production resulting from their use. Studies
have shown that the added cost of increasing tower height is often justified by the added
power generated from the stronger winds. Larger wind turbines are usually mounted on
towers ranging from 40 to 70 meters tall.
Towers for small wind systems are generally "guyed" designs. This means that there are
guy wires anchored to the ground on three or four sides of the tower to hold it erect. These
towers cost less than freestanding towers, but require more land area to anchor the guy wires.
Some of these guyed towers are erected by tilting them up. This operation can be quickly
accomplished using only a winch, with the turbine already mounted to the tower top. This
simplifies not only installation, but maintenance as well. Towers can be constructed of a
simple tube, a wooden pole or a lattice of tubes, rods, and angle iron. Large wind turbines
may be mounted on lattice towers, tube towers or guyed tilt-up towers.
Towers must be strong enough to support the wind turbine and to sustain vibration, wind
loading and the overall weather elements for the lifetime of the wind turbine. Their costs will
vary widely as a function of design and height.
Operating Characteristics of wind mills:
All wind machines share certain operating characteristics, such as cut-in, rated and cut-out

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wind speeds.
Cut-in Speed:
Cut-in speed is the minimum wind speed at which the blades will turn and generate usable
power. This wind speed is typically between 10 and 16 kmph.
Rated Speed:
The rated speed is the minimum wind speed at which the wind turbine will generate its
designated rated power. For example, a "10 kilowatt" wind turbine may not generate
10kilowatts until wind speeds reach 40 kmph. Rated speed for most machines is in the range
of 40 to 55 kmph. At wind speeds between cut-in and rated, the power output from a wind
turbine increases as the wind increases. The output of most machines levels off above the
rated speed. Most manufacturers provide graphs, called "power curves, “showing how their
wind turbine output varies with wind speed.
Cut-out Speed:
At very high wind speeds, typically between 72 and 128 kmph, most wind turbines cease
power generation and shut down. The wind speed at which shut down occurs is called the
cut-out speed. Having a cut-out speed is a safety feature which protects the wind turbine from
damage. Shut down may occur in one of several ways. In some machines an automatic brake
is activated by a wind speed sensor. Some machines twist or "pitch" the blades to spill the
wind. Still others use "spoilers," drag flaps mounted on the blades or the hub which are
automatically activated by high rotor rpm's, or mechanically activated by a spring loaded
device which turns the machine sideways to the wind stream. Normal wind turbine operation
usually resumes when the wind drops back to a safe level.
Betz Limit:
It is the flow of air over the blades and through the rotor area that makes a wind turbine
function. The wind turbine extracts energy by slowing the wind down. The theoretical
maximum amount of energy in the wind that can be collected by a wind turbine's rotor is
approximately 59%. This value is known as the Betz limit. If the blades were 100%efficient,
a wind turbine would not work because the air, having given up all its energy, would entirely
stop. In practice, the collection efficiency of a rotor is not as high as 59%.A more typical
efficiency is 35% to 45%. A complete wind energy system, including rotor, transmission,
generator, storage and other devices, which all have less than perfect efficiencies, will deliver
between 10% and 30% of the original energy available in the wind.

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In the last column of the table, we have calculated the output of the turbine assuming that the
efficiency of the turbine is 30%. However, we need to remember that the efficiency of the
turbine is a function of wind speed. It varies with wind speed.
Now, let us try to calculate the wind speed required to generate power equivalent to 1square
meter PV panel with 12% efficiency. We know that solar insolation available at the PV panel
is 1000 watts/m2at standard condition. Hence the output of the PV panel with 12% efficiency
would be 120 watts. Now the speed required to generate this power by the turbine with 30%
efficiency can be calculated as follows:
Turbine output required = 120 Watts/m2
Power Density at the blades = 120/ (0.3) = 400 watts/m2
Power Speed Characteristics
The mechanical power that can be extracted from the wind depends heavily on the wind
speed, and for each wind speed is always an optimum turbine speed at which the wind power
extracted at the shaft of the turbine is maximum, at any other speed apart from this optimum
speed we get sub-standard operation of the system.

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So our chief goal would be find out the optimum turbine speed over the operational range of
the wind stream speeds. This thing is basically area specific, because the wind speeds would
vary from place to place. Now the mechanical power transmitted at the shaft is:

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Pitch Controlled Wind Turbines

Fig: Schematic of Pitch Controlled Wind Turbines

On a pitch controlled wind turbine the turbine's electronic controller checks the power output
of the turbine several times per second. When the power output becomes too high, it sends an
order to the blade pitch mechanism which immediately pitches (turns) the rotor blades
slightly out of the wind. Conversely, the blades are turned back into the wind whenever the
wind drops again.
Stall Controlled Wind Turbines
(Passive) stall controlled wind turbines have the rotor blades bolted into the hub at a fixed
angle. The geometry of the rotor blade profile however has been aerodynamically designed to
ensure that the moment the wind speed becomes too high, it creates turbulence on the side of
the rotor blade which is not facing the wind as shown in the picture on the previous page.
This stall prevents the lifting force of the rotor blade from acting on the rotor.

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If you have read the section on aerodynamics and aerodynamics stall , you will realise that as
the actual wind speed in the area increases, the angle of attack of the rotor blade will increase,
until at some point it starts to stall.
Active Stall Controlled Wind Turbines
An increasing number of larger wind turbines (1 MW and up) are being developed with an
active stall power control mechanism.
Technically the active stall machines resemble pitch controlled machines, since they have
patchable blades. In order to get a reasonably large torque (turning force) at low wind speeds,
the machines will usually be programmed to pitch their blades much like a pitch controlled
machine at low wind speeds. (Often they use only a few fixed steps depending upon the wind
speed).
When the machine reaches its rated power, however, you will notice an important difference
from the pitch controlled machines: If the generator is about to be overloaded, the machine
will pitch its blades in the opposite direction from what a pitch controlled machine does. In
other words, it will increase the angle of attack the rotor blades in order to make the blades go
into a deeper stall, thus wasting the excess energy in the wind.

YAW CONTROL

Fig: Schematic of Yaw Control

Turbines whether upwind or downwind, are generally stable in yaw in the sense that if the
nacelle is free to yaw, the turbine will naturally remain pointing into the wind. However, it

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may not point exactly into wind, in which case some active control of the nacelle angle may
be needed to maximize the energy capture.
Since a yaw drive is usually required anyway, e.g. for start-up and for unwinding the pendant
cable, it may as well are used for active yaw tracking. Free yaw has the advantage that it does
not generate any yaw moments at the yaw bearing. However, it is usually necessary to have at
least some yaw damping, in which case there will be a yaw moment at the bearing. In
practice, most turbines are used active yaw control.
A yaw error signal from the nacelle-mounted wind vane is then used to calculate a demand
signal for the yaw actuator. Frequently the demand signal will simply command to yaw at a
slow fixed rate in one or the other direction. The yaw vane signal must be heavily averaged,
especially for upwind turbines where the vane is behind the rotor. Because of the slow
response of the yaw control system, a simple dead-band controller is often sufficient. The
yaw motor is switched on when the averaged yaw error exceeds a certain value, and switched
off again, after a certain time or when the nacelle has moved through a certain angle.

More complex control algorithms are sometimes used, but the control is always slow-acting,
and does not demand any special design considerations. One exception is the case of active
yaw control to regulate aerodynamic power in high winds, as used on the variable speed
Gamma 60 turbine.
This is clearly requires very rapid yaw rates, and results in large yaw loads and gyroscopic
and asymmetric aerodynamic loads on the rotor. This method of power regulation would be
too slow for a fixed-speed turbine, and even on the Gamma 60 the speed excursions during
above-rated operation were quite large.
PITCH ANGLE CONTROL:
Pitch control is the most common means of controlling the aerodynamic power generated by
the turbine rotor. It also has a major effect on all the aerodynamic loads generated by the
rotor. In this control system changes the pitch angle of the plates according to the speed of the
wind. below rated wind speed, the turbine should simply be trying to produce as much power
as possible, so there is no need to vary the pitch angle.

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 Fig: Pitch Angle Control
Here, the pitch setting should be optimum value to give maximum power. Above rated wind
speed, pitch control provides a very effective means of regulating the aerodynamic power and
loads produced by the rotor so that design limits are not exceeded. A decrease in pitch, i.e.,
turning the leading edge downwind, reduces the torque by increasing the angle of attack
towards stall, where the lift starts to decrease and the drag increases. This is known as
pitching towards stall.
These strategies will result in most of the blade being stalled in high winds. If only the blade
tips are pitched, it may be difficult to fit a suitable actuator into the outboard portion of the
blade; accessibility for maintenance is also difficult.
In the process of controlling the pitch in cases of speeds above the wind speed, the rotor
output power decreases, generally the input variable to the pitch controller is the error signal
arising from the difference between the output electrical power and the reference power.
Generally the operation below the rated speed has the controller changing the pitch in a
manner use the available wind stream most efficiently. The generator output has to be
properly monitored, this would necessitate incorporation of better sensors, hence complete
pitch control is generally not considered for smaller machines.
Economy aspects:
The economy of wind power generation depends mainly on the capital costs. The wind
energy is for free and the costs for operation and maintenance can be estimated to between
50and 60 SEK/MWh(el). The investment for the wind generator including construction work
on the site can be estimated to about 9000 SEK/kW. At an interest rate of 5% and 25 years

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economic life, this leads to an annual cost of 638 SEK/kW.The cost per generated kWh then
depends on the annual generation. For a utilisation time of 2500 hours, the capital cost per
kW will be 255 SEK/MWh(el) and the total generation cost about 310 SEK/MWh(el). For a
utilisation time of 1500 h/year the total cost will be about 480SEK/MWh. As can be seen
from table 5, the actual utilisation times for the wind generators that have been built in
Sweden are closer to 1500 h than 2500 h.There is however an additional cost associated with
the irregularity of wind power generation. The generation depends on the wind speed and
cannot be controlled to match the electricity demand unless the demand happens to be less
than the possible generation. For full utilisation of the wind potential, either storage of the
electricity or combined operation with other types of power plants is necessary. In Sweden,
the hydropower can be used for compensation of low wind power generation during periods
of low winds. During periods with strong winds, the hydropower generation can be reduced
and water stored in the reservoirs. The costs for this depend on the capacity of wind power in
the system. For wind power generation in Sweden, there will be no additional cost if the
annual wind power generation is less than 2 – 2,5 TWh. A generation of 7TWh from wind
leads to an additional cost of about 5 SEK/MWh(el).

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 UNIT-IV
BIOGAS & GEOTHERMAL POWER GENERATING SYSTEMS
Biogas Power Generation: Principles of Bioconversion, Types of Biogas Digesters –
Characteristics of Bio-Gas- Utilization- Economic and Environmental Aspects

Geothermal and Ocean Power Generation: Principle of Geothermal Energy Methods of

Harnessing- Principle of Ocean Energy-Tidal and Wave Energy- Mini Hydel Plants-
Economic Aspects

BIOMASS:
Introduction:
Biomass is the term used to describe all the organic matter, produced by photosynthesis that
exists on the earth’s surface. The source of all energy in biomass is the sun, the biomass
acting as a kind of chemical energy store. Biomass is constantly undergoing a complex series
of physical and chemical transformations and being regenerated while giving off energy in
the form of heat to the atmosphere. To make use of biomass for our own energy needs we can
simply tap into this energy source, in its simplest form we know, this is a basic open fire used
to provide heat for cooking, warming water or warming the air in our home. More
sophisticated technologies exist for extracting this energy and converting it into useful heat or
power in an efficient way.
The exploitation of energy from biomass has played a key role in the evolution of mankind.
Until relatively recently it was the only form of energy which was usefully exploited by
humans and is still the main source of energy for more than half the world’s population for
domestic energy needs.
Traditionally the extraction of energy from biomass is split into 3 distinct categories:
Solid biomass - the use of trees, crop residues, animal and human waste (all though not
strictly a solid biomass source, it is often included in this category for the sake of
convenience), household or industrial residues for direct combustion to provide heat. Often
the solid biomass will undergo physical processing such as cutting, chipping, briquetting, etc.
but retains its solid form.
Biogas - biogas is obtained by an aerobically (in an air free environment) digesting organic
material to produce a combustible gas known as methane. Animal waste and municipal waste
are two common feed stocks for anaerobic digestion.
Liquid Bio fuels - are obtained by subjecting organic materials to one of various chemical or
physical processes to produce a usable, combustible, liquid fuel. Bio fuels such as vegetable

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oils or ethanol are often processed from industrial or commercial residues such as biogases
(sugarcane residue remaining after the sugar is extracted) or from energy crops grown
specifically for Micro-organisms , like all living things, require food for growth .
Biological sewage treatment consists of a step-by-step, continuous, sequenced attack on the
organic compounds found in wastewater and upon which the microbes feed.
Aerobic Digestion
Aerobic digestion of waste is the natural biological degradation and purification process in
which bacteria that thrive in oxygen-rich environments break down and digest the waste.
During oxidation process, pollutants are broken down into carbon dioxide (CO2 ), water
(H2 O), nitrates, sulphates and biomass (microorganisms). By operating the oxygen supply
with aerators, the process can be significantly accelerated. Of all the biological treatment
methods, aerobic digestion is the most widespread process that is used throughout the world.
Biological and chemical oxygen demand
Aerobic bacteria demand oxygen to decompose dissolved pollutants. Large amounts of
pollutants require large quantities of bacteria; therefore the demand for oxygen will be high.
The Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) is a measure of the quantity of dissolved organic
pollutants that can be removed in biological oxidation by the bacteria. It is expressed in mg/l.
The Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) measures the quantity of dissolved organic
pollutants than can be removed in chemical oxidation, by adding strong acids. It is expressed
in mg/l.
The BOD/COD gives an indication of the fraction of pollutants in the wastewater that is
biodegradable.
Advantages of Aerobic Digestion
Aerobic bacteria are very efficient in breaking down waste products. The result of this is;
aerobic treatment usually yields better effluent quality that that obtained in anaerobic
processes. The aerobic pathway also releases a substantial amount of energy. A portion is
used by the microorganisms for synthesis and growth of new microorganisms.

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 Path of Aerobic Digestion
Aerobic Decomposition
A biological process, in which, organisms use available organic matter to support biological
activity. The process uses organic matter, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen, and produces
stable solids, carbon dioxide, and more organisms. The microorganisms which can only
survive in aerobic conditions are known as aerobic organisms. In sewer lines the sewage
becomes anoxic if left for a few hours and becomes anaerobic if left for more than 1 1/2 days.
Anoxic organisms work well with aerobic and anaerobic organisms. Facultative and anoxic
are basically the same concept.

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Anoxic Decomposition
A biological process in which a certain group of microorganisms use chemically combined
oxygen such as that found in nitrite and nitrate. These organisms consume organic matter to
support life functions. They use organic matter, combined oxygen from nitrate, and nutrients
to produce nitrogen gas, carbon dioxide, stable solids and more organisms.

Anaerobic Digestion
Anaerobic digestion is a complex biochemical reaction carried out in a number of steps by
several types of microorganisms that require little or no oxygen to live. During this process, a
gas that is mainly composed of methane and carbon dioxide, also referred to as biogas, is
produced. The amount of gas produced varies with the amount of organic waste fed to the
digester and temperature influences the rate of decomposition and gas production.
Anaerobic digestion occurs in four steps:
• Hydrolysis : Complex organic matter is decomposed into simple soluble organic molecules
using water to split the chemical bonds between the substances.
• Fermentation or Acidogenesis: The chemical decomposition of carbohydrates by
enzymes, bacteria, yeasts, or molds in the absence of oxygen.
• Acetogenesis: The fermentation products are converted into acetate, hydrogen and carbon
dioxide by what are known as acetogenic bacteria.
• Methanogenesis: Is formed from acetate and hydrogen/carbon dioxide by methanogenic
bacteria.

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The acetogenic bacteria grow in close association with the methanogenic bacteria during the
fourth stage of the process. The reason for this is that the conversion of the fermentation
products by the acetogens is thermodynamically only if the hydrogen concentration is kept
sufficiently low. This requires a close relationship between both classes of bacteria.
The anaerobic process only takes place under strict anaerobic conditions. It requires specific
adapted bio-solids and particular process conditions, which are considerably different from
those needed for aerobic treatment.

Path of Anaerobic Digestion

Advantages of Anaerobic Digestion
Wastewater pollutants are transformed into methane, carbon dioxide and smaller amount of
bio-solids. The biomass growth is much lower compared to those in the aerobic processes.
They are also much more compact than the aerobic bio-solids.
Anaerobic Decomposition
A biological process, in which, decomposition of organic matter occurs without oxygen. Two
processes occur during anaerobic decomposition. First, facultative acid forming bacteria use
organic matter as a food source and produce volatile (organic) acids, gases such as carbon
dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, stable solids and more facultative organisms. Second,
anaerobic methane formers use the volatile acids as a food source and produce methane gas,
stable solids and more anaerobic methane formers. The methane gas produced by the process

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is usable as a fuel. The methane former works slower than the acid former, therefore the pH
has to stay constant consistently, slightly basic, to optimize the creation of methane. You
need to constantly feed it sodium bicarbonate to keep it basic.

Biogas - Digester types

In this chapter, the most important types of biogas plants are described:
· Fixed-dome plants
· Floating-drum plants
· Balloon plants
· Horizontal plants
· Earth-pit plants
· Ferrocement plants
Of these, the two most familiar types in developing countries are the fixed-dome plants and
the floating-drum plants. Typical designs in industrialized countries and appropriate design
selection criteria have also been considered.
Fixed-dome plants
The costs of a fixed-dome biogas plant are relatively low. It is simple as no moving parts
exist. There are also no rusting steel parts and hence a long life of the plant (20 years or
more) can be expected. The plant is constructed underground, protecting it from physical
damage and saving space. While the underground digester is protected from low temperatures
at night and during cold seasons, sunshine and warm seasons take longer to heat up the
digester. No day/night fluctuations of temperature in the digester positively influence the
bacteriological processes.
The construction of fixed dome plants is labor-intensive, thus creating local employment.

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Fixed-dome plants are not easy to build. They should only be built where construction can be
supervised by experienced biogas technicians. Otherwise plants may not be gas-tight(porosity
and cracks).
The basic elements of a fixed dome plant (here the Nicarao Design) are shown in the figure
below.

Figure 1: Fixed dome plant Nicarao design: 1. Mixing tank with inlet pipe and sand
trap.2. Digester. 3. Compensation and removal tank. 4. Gasholder. 5. Gaspipe. 6. Entry
hatch, with gastight seal. 7. Accumulation of thick sludge. 8. Outlet pipe. 9. Reference
level. 10.Supernatant scum, broken up by varying level.
Function
A fixed-dome plant comprises of a closed, dome-shaped digester with an immovable, rigid
gas-holder and a displacement pit, also named ’compensation tank’. The gas is stored in the
upper part of the digester. When gas production commences, the slurry is displaced into the
compensating tank. Gas pressure increases with the volume of gas stored, i.e. with the height
difference between the two slurry levels. If there is little gas in the gasholder, the gas pressure
is low.

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Figure 2: Basic function of a fixed-dome biogas plant, 1 Mixing pit, 2 Digester, 3 Gasholder,
4 Displacement pit, 5 Gas pipe

Digester:
The digesters of fixed-dome plants are usually masonry structures, structures of cement and
Ferro-cement exist. Main parameters for the choice of material are:
. Technical suitability (stability, gas- and liquid tightness);
.cost-effectiveness;
· Availability in the region and transport costs;
· Availability of local skills for working with the particular building material.
Fixed dome plants produce just as much gas as floating-drum plants, if they are gas-tight.
However, utilization of the gas is less effective as the gas pressure fluctuates substantially.
Burners and other simple appliances cannot be set in an optimal way. If the gas is required at
constant pressure (e.g., for engines), a gas pressure regulator or a floating gas-holder is
necessary.

Gas-Holder:

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Figure 3: Fixed-dome plant in Tunesia. The final layers of the masonry structure are
being fixed.
The top part of a fixed-dome plant (the gas space) must be gas-tight. Concrete, masonry and
cement rendering are not gas-tight. The gas space must therefore be painted with a gas-tight
layer (e.g. ’Water-proofer’, Latex or synthetic paints). A possibility to reduce the risk of
cracking of the gas-holder consists in the construction of a weak-ring in the masonry of the
digester. This "ring" is a flexible joint between the lower (water-proof) and the upper(gas-
proof) part of the hemispherical structure. It prevents cracks that develop due to the
hydrostatic pressure in the lower parts to move into the upper parts of the gas-holder.
Types of fixed-dome plants
· Chinese fixed-dome plant is the archetype of all fixed dome plants. Several million have
been constructed in China. The digester consists of a cylinder with round bottom and top.
· Janata model was the first fixed-dome design in India, as a response to the Chinese fixed
dome plant. It is not constructed anymore. The mode of construction lead to cracks in the
gasholder - very few of these plant had been gas-tight.
· Deenbandhu the successor of the Janata plant in India, with improved design, was more
crack-proof and consumed less building material than the Janata plant. with a hemisphere
digester

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· CAMARTEC model has a simplified structure of a hemispherical dome shell based on a
rigid foundation ring only and a calculated joint of fraction, the so-called weak / strong ring.
It was developed in the late 80s in Tanzania.

Figure 5: Fixed dome plant CAMARTEC design

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Climate and size
Fixed-dome plants must be covered with earth up to the top of the gas-filled space to
counteract the internal pressure (up to 0,15 bar). The earth cover insulation and the option for
internal heating makes them suitable for colder climates. Due to economic parameters, the
recommended minimum size of a fixed-dome plant is 5 m3. Digester volumes up to 200m3
are known and possible.
Advantages: Low initial costs and long useful life-span; no moving or rusting parts involved;
basic design is compact, saves space and is well insulated; construction creates local
employment.
Disadvantages: Masonry gas-holders require special sealants and high technical skills for
gas-tight construction; gas leaks occur quite frequently; fluctuating gas pressure complicates
gas utilization; amount of gas produced is not immediately visible, plant operation not readily
understandable; fixed dome plants need exact planning of levels; excavation can be difficult
and expensive in bedrock.
Fixed dome plants can be recommended only where construction can be supervised by
experienced biogas technicians.

Figure 6: Installation of a Shanghai fixed-dome system near Shanghai, PR China

Floating-drum plants Floating – drum plants

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 Figure 7: Floating-drum plant in Mauretania
The drum
In the past, floating-drum plants were mainly built in India. A floating-drum plant consists of
a cylindrical or dome shaped digester and a moving, floating gas-holder, or drum. The gas-
holder floats either directly in the fermenting slurry or in a separate water jacket. The drum in
which the biogas collects has an internal and/or external guide frame that provides stability
and keeps the drum upright. If biogas is produced, the drum moves up, if gas is consumed,
the gas holder sinks back.
Size
Floating-drum plants are used chiefly for digesting animal and human feces on a continuous
feed mode of operation, i.e. with daily input. They are used most frequently by small- to
middle-sized farms (digester size: 5-15m3) or in institutions and larger agro-industrial
estates(digester size: 20-100m3).
Advantages: Floating-drum plants are easy to understand and operate. They provide gas at a
constant pressure, and the stored gas-volume is immediately recognizable by the position of
the drum. Gas-tightness is no problem, provided the gasholder is de-rusted and painted
regularly.
Disadvantages: The steel drum is relatively expensive and maintenance-intensive. Removing
rust and painting has to be carried out regularly. The life-time of the drum is short (up to 15

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years; in tropical coastal regions about five years). If fibrous substrates are used, the gas-
holder shows a tendency to get "stuck" in the resultant floating scum.

Types of floating-drum plants

There are different types of floating-drum plants (see drawings under Construction):
· KVIC model with a cylindrical digester, the oldest and most widespread floating drum
biogas plant from
India.
· Pragati model with a hemisphere digester
· Ganesh model made of angular steel and plastic foil floating-drum plant made of pre-
fabricated
reinforced concrete compound units floating-drum plant made of fibre-glass reinforced
polyester
· BORDA model: The BORDA-plant combines the static advantages of hemispherical
digester with the
Process-stability of the floating-drum and the longer life span of a water jacket plant.
Economic and Environmental Aspects

BIOGAS ECONOMY
Biogas economy is a highly complex, and it is hard to compare with other energy
production systems. Unlike other energy-producing systems, the anaerobic fermentation
systems aim to find solutions to many things out of energy requirement (Yilmaz, 2009).
Project designing, initial investment and business costs can be stated as mainly factors that
make up the biogas system. Electricity, sale of organic fertilizer which is released, and
using for heating purposes of using of waste heat that obtained from cogeneration system,
can be stated of expected revenue in the biogas systems.
Initial Investment Cost
Site preparation of biogas plant, soil excavation and filling, construction, mechanical and
instrumentation design work can be considered as cost items. In addition, technical, legal,
and planning permissions, financial activities, and connections for sale of produced
electricity can be shown as the project development expenses.
Business Expenses
Business costs of a biogas plant vary depending on the capacity of facility, design
criteria and local circumstances. Business expenses generally consist of the following

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components.
 Staff costs
 Insurance
 Transportation costs
 Maintenance costs

Business Income
Produced electricity, released heat and the sale of organic fertilizer are the most
important sources of income that expected from biogas system. In addition, the liquid
manure which is used in the agricultural areas, and obtained from procedure can be sold to
generate income (Kumar et al., 2009). The amount of biogas per ton of waste is considered
33 m3 for cattle waste, 58 m3 for small animals, and 78 m3 for poultry. Energy value of 1
m3 of biogas is 17-
25 MJ/m3. 150-300 liters per person per day is considered sufficient biogas per farm. 4248
liters of biogas is required for a family, which consists of four people, and it can be
obtained from three cows. 30-
40 liters biogas requires for boiling per liter water, and 0.5 kg rice needs 120-140 liters
biogas for cooking. In addition, a lamp consumes 120-150 liters biogas per day (Kasap,
2005).

Cost of Electricity Generation from Biogas

First, special buildings should be constructed for generating electricity from biogas. These
facilities vary depending on amount of electricity that desires to produce and location. The
average facility cost is around € 3,000 for each kW/h. As an example, a facility, 500 kW/h
capacity, costs around € 1.5 million (Ulusan, 2009). Comparison with other fuels in terms
of calorific value of biogas is given in Table 3.
According to a study which is conducted in India, almost 0.12 ha forest is saved by means
of a biogas plant which produces 2.8 m3 biogas. 28 ha forest will be saved by means of 240
m3 fermentation tank which works with 200 cattle every year (Kasap, 2005).

Income of Obtained from produced Electricity

According to former law of renewable energy, government had been paying €5.5 cents per
kW/h electricity. This amount was not enough to invest for biogas in Turkey. Therefore,
electricity production of biogas was not spread except of a few projects.
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However, according to new law (No. 6094) which put into effect on December 29, 2010,
Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources will pay $13.3 cents per kW/h for electricity
that is generated from biogas. The government also has guaranteed to buy for 10 years. The
following calculations based on these prices, and it is setup for 500 kW/h facility.

Table 3. Comparison of biogas with other fuels (Kasap, 2005)

TYPE HEATING HEATING SPECIFIC 1 m3

OF VALUE EFFICIEN FUEL BIOGAS
ENERG CY (%) REQUIREMENT EQUVALENT
Y
Biogas 5100 kcal/m3 82 0.15 m3/BGh 1 m3
City Gas 4000 kcal/m3 82 0.19 m3/BGh 1.27 m3
Diesel Fuel 8700 kcal/lt 82 0.089 lt/BGh 0.60 lt
Gasoline 7350 kcal/lt 82 0.105 lt/BGh 0.70 lt
Coke 7000 kcal/kg 60 0.15 kg/BGh 1 kg
Electricity 860 kcal/kwh 95 0.77 kwh/BGh 5.1 kw/h
LPG 11000 kcal/kg 0.46 kg
Wood 3100 kcal/kg 3.47 kg
Natural Gas 0.62 m3
Wood charcoal 1.46 kg
Dried cow dung 12.3 kg

$13.3-cents / kWh
500 kW/h X 8.000 h = 4.000.000 kWh (annual electricity production)
4.000.000 KW X $ 13.3 cents/KW = $532.000 (annual turnover)
$532.000/12 = $44.333.33 (monthly turnover)

Income of Obtaining from Sale of Organic Fertilizer

500 kW/h facility runs with 62.500m3 cattle manure per year. 20.000 tons organic fertilizer
can be obtained from processing that manure. Efficiency of bio-fertilizer increases by 20%.
While farm fertilizer contains 4 kg N, 2 kg P2O5 and 4 kg K2O per ton, bio- fertilizer which
is formed as a result of fermentation, contains 5.6 kg N, 3.7 kg P2O5 and 5.6 kg K2O per ton
(Kasap, 2005).
The market value of similar organic fertilizer varies around from 500 to 650 TL (Turkish
Liras) ranges.

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Accordingly: 20.000 ton X $500 TL/ t = 10.000.000 TL (annual potential turnover)

Evaluation of the heat released during the production of electricity

Heat is released as well as electric power and organic fertilizer during the process of biogas.
This heat can be used for heating in the greenhouse and residential places, which are close
to facility. This is also a source, which can be evaluated as a marketable value (Ulusan,
2009).
CONTRIBUTIONS OF BIOGAS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL
CLEANLINESS
When different energy resources are evaluated in terms of environmental impacts, they
cause to emissions from waste treatment process if there is no an anaerobic fermentation.
This situation should be taken into consideration for comparisons.
With the use of biogas instead of fossil resources, emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse
gases is declined. Lesser fossil fuel is consumed during the production of biogas (using of
diesel for transporting the waste). As a result, greenhouse gas emission decreases 75% with
the using of biogas in houses and cars.
CH4 is an important component of biogas. It is a greenhouse gas and 1 kg CH4 equals to
20 kg of CO2 when it is analyzed in terms of climate change. Reducing the loss of CH4
from biogas systems will decrease to the greenhouse gas emissions.
Anaerobic fermentation is a good alternative when emissions take into account that
causes eutrophication and acidification. For example, leakage of nitrogen from sugar beet
can be reduced if it is treated with anaerobic fermentation. If wastes are not collected in the
winter months, they are decomposed, and nitrogen becomes free and it causes
eutrophication (Yilmaz, 2009).
If organic materials are not used in the production of biogas, they become harmful and
pathogenic. In addition, the direct use of these materials leads to nitrate pollution of soil
and groundwater. Pig wastes contain heavy metals such as copper and zinc and cause to
pollution. This waste leads to the formation of flies and odors, too. Biogas systems
providea massive reduction of environmental pollution that occurs due to those wastes.
Organic solids which are found in the feeding material is reduced approximately 50% with
biogas systems. This rate can be risen up to 80-to 90% in some systems (Eryasar, 2007).
Greenhouse gas emission, released agricultural activities, is approximately 20-35% of
total emission. Methane emissions from ruminant animals are originated from digestive
system (80%), whereas methane emissions from pork and chicken are originated due to

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waste decomposition (70%). Biogas systems have two important effects in terms of
greenhouse gas effect. First of all, biogas reduces methane emissions that occur during
storage of animal waste and they are 21 times more effective than CO2. Secondly,
conversion of biogas reduces CO2 emissions that will be caused by fossil fuels. Decreasing
of 1 kg methane emission equals to 25 kg CO2. Methane is not only absorbing infrared
radiation, but also it causes the production of greenhouse gases such as ozone and water
vapor with the photochemical reactions of CO2. Life of methane molecules is
approximately 10 years in the atmosphere. Therefore, controlling of methane emission yield
could soon (Eryasar, 2007).
Analysis shows that if biogas is used for the purpose of heating instead of fossil fuels,
emissions of greenhouse gas decrease around 75-90%. If it is used instead of Combined
Heat and Power (BIG), emissions of greenhouse gas decrease around 60- 90%. If it is used
instead of gasoline and diesel for vehicles, emissions of greenhouse gas decrease around 50-
85%. On the other hand, the biogas systems may be 50-500% higher than bio energy in
terms of greenhouse gas emissions.
Anaerobic fermentation and biogas production have some potential environmental
advantages depending on the type of waste material, fuel and waste management systems.
Anaerobic fermentation usually may be useful in the following circumstances.
- Biogas replaces fossil fuels in case liquid animal waste, waste materials like sugar beet
leaves and its head parts normally are not used as raw material for energy;
- Taking into account indirect environmental impacts, for example, (a) reducing of the
methane and ammonia emissions during storage of animal waste, (b) decreasing of the
leakage of nitrogen which contains waste products with rich nitrogen content and emission
of ammonium, and (c) reducing of ammonia emission and composting organic matter;
- It is lead to decrease the potential greenhouse gas emissions and photochemical
oxidation reaction, eutrophication, acidification and emissions of

particulate matter in case of biogas to replace fossil fuels (Yilmaz, 2009).

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 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
Introduction
The word geothermal comes from the Greek words geo (Earth) and therme(heat). Geothermal
energy is heat from within the Earth. Geothermal energy is generated in the Earth’s core,
almost 4,000miles beneath the Earth’s surface. The double-layered core is made up of very
hot magma (melted rock) surrounding a solid iron center. Very high temperatures are
continuously produced inside the Earth by the slow decay of radioactive particles. This
process is natural in all rocks.
Surrounding the outer core is the mantle, which is about 1,800 miles thick and made of
magma and rock. The outermost layer of the Earth, the land that forms the continents and
ocean floors, is called the crust. The crust is three to five miles thick under the oceans and15
to 35 miles thick on the continents. The crust is not a solid piece, like the shell of an egg, but
is broken into pieces called plates. Magma comes close to the Earth’s surface near the edges
of these plates. This is where volcanoes occur. The lava that erupts from volcanoes is partly
magma. Deep underground, the rocks and water absorb the heat from this magma. We can
dig wells and pump the heated, underground water to the surface. People around the world
use geothermal energy to heat their homes and to produce electricity. Geothermal energy is
called a renewable energy source because the water is replenished by rainfall and the heat is
continuously produced deep within the Earth. We won’t run out of geothermal energy.

Geothermal energy is defined as heat from the Earth. It is a clean, renewable resource that
provides energy in the United States and around the world. It is considered a renewable
energy resource because the heat emanating from the interior of the Earth is essentially
limitless. The heat continuously flowing from the Earth’s interior is estimated to be
equivalent to 42 million megawatts of power.5 One megawatt is equivalent to 1million
watts, and can meet the power needs of about 1,000 homes. The interior of the Earth is
expected to remain extremely hot for billions of year to come, ensuring an essentially
limitless flow of heat. Geothermal power plants capture this heat and convert it to energy
in the form of electricity. The picture below shows the source of geothermal electric
power production, heat from the Earth. As depth into the Earth’s crust increases,
temperature increases as well.

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 Figure 1: Earth’s Temperatures

Like all forms of electric generation, both renewable and non-renewable, geothermal power
generation has environmental impacts and benefits. By comparison to other forms of
electricity generation, this paper highlights the benefits of choosing geothermal energy over
other sources. Topics discussed include air emissions, noise pollution, water usage, land
usage, waste disposal, subsidence, induced seismicity, and impacts on wildlife and
vegetation. In addition, common environmental myths associated with geothermal energy are
addressed throughout the paper. Geothermal energy. whether utilized in a binary, steam, or
flash power plant, cooled by air or water systems, is a clean, reliable source of electricity with
only minimal environmental impacts, even when compared with other renewable energy
sources.
Wherever comparisons with other energy technologies are used, they are intended to provide
a context for the reader. Every effort has been made to use comparable data from companies,
industry groups, and government agencies. In providing these comparisons, we recognize that
energy technologies have many different attributes, all of which should be considered
Converting Geothermal Energy into Electricity
Heat emanating from the Earth’s interior and crust generates magma (molten rock).Because
magma is less dense than surrounding rock, it rises but generally does not reach the surface,
heating the water contained in rock pores and fractures. Wells are drilled into this natural

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collection of hot water or steam, called a geothermal reservoir, in order to bring it to the
surface and use it for electricity production.
The three basic types of geothermal electrical generation facilities are binary, dry steam
(referred to as .steam.),and flash steam (referred to as .flash.). Electricity production from
each type depends on reservoir temperatures and pressures, and each type produces
somewhat different environmental impacts. In addition, the choice of using water or air
cooling technology in the power plants has economic and environmental trade-offs.

The most common type of power plant to date is a flash power plant with a water cooling
system, where a mixture of water and steam is produced from the wells. The steam is
separated in a surface vessel (steam separator) and delivered to the turbine, and the
turbine powers a generator. In a dry steam plant like those at The Geysers in California,
steam directly from the geothermal reservoir runs the turbines that power the generator,
and no separation is necessary because wells only produce steam. Figure 2 shows a flash
and dry steam plant.

Figure 2: Flash and Dry Steam Power Plant Diagrams

Recent advances in geothermal technology have made possible the economic production of
electricity from lower temperature geothermal resources, at 100o C (212o F) to 150o C(302 o
F). Known as binary geothermal plants, these facilities reduce geothermal energies already
low emission rate to near zero.
In the binary process, the geothermal water heats another liquid, such as isobutane, that boils
at a lower temperature than water. The two liquids are kept completely separate through the
use of a heat exchanger used to transfer the heat energy from the geothermal water to the
.working-fluid." The secondary fluid vaporizes into gaseous vapor and (like steam) the force

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of the expanding vapor turns the turbines that power the generators. If the power plant uses
air cooling (see next paragraph) the geothermal fluids never make contact with the
atmosphere before they are pumped back into the underground geothermal reservoir,
effectively making the plant emission free.
Developed in the1980s, this technology is already in use in geothermal power plants
throughout the world in areas that have lower resource temperatures. The ability to use lower
temperature resources increases the number of geothermal reservoirs that can be used for
power production. Figure 3 shows a binary power plant.

Figure 3: Binary Power Plant

Vemuit@2008
A cooling system is essential for the operation of any modern geothermal power plant.
Cooling towers prevent turbines from overheating and prolong facility life. Most power
plants, including most geothermal plants, use water cooling systems. Figure 4 below shows a
more complex diagram of a geothermal power plant, complete with a water(evaporative)
cooling system. Figures 2 and 3 simplify the process of electricity production, while figure 4
shows greater detail and accuracy. Water cooled systems generally require less land than air
cooled systems, and are considered overall to be effective and efficient cooling systems.

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The evaporative cooling used in water cooled systems, however, requires a continuous supply
of cooling water and creates vapor plumes. Usually, some of the spent steam from the turbine
(for flash- and steam-type plants) can be condensed for this purpose. Air cooled systems, in
contrast to the relative stability of water cooled systems, can be extremely efficient in the
winter months, but are less efficient in hotter seasons when the contrast between air and water
temperature is reduced, so that air does not effectively cool the organic fluid. Air cooled
systems are beneficial in areas where extremely low emissions are desired, or in arid regions
where water resources are limited, since no fluid needs to be evaporated for the cooling
process.
Air cooled systems are preferred in areas where the view shed is particularly sensitive to the
effects of vapor plumes, as vapor plumes are only emitted into the air by wet cooling towers
and not air cooling towers. Most geothermal air cooling is used in binary facilities.

Figure 4: Geothermal Power Plant with Water Cooling System

A combination of flash and binary technology, known as the flash/binary combined cycle,
has been used effectively to take advantage of the benefits of both technologies. In this type
of plant, the flashed steam is first converted to electricity with a back pressure steam turbine,
and the low-pressure steam exiting the backpressure turbine is condensed in a binary system.

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This allows for the effective use of air cooling towers with flash applications and takes
advantage of the binary process. The flash/binary system has a higher efficiency where the
well-field produces high pressure steam, while the elimination of vacuum pumping of non
condensable gases allows for 100 percent injection

OCEAN ENERGY
OTEC
Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) generates electricity indirectly from solar energy
by harnessing the temperature difference between the sun-warmed surface of tropical oceans
and the colder deep waters. A significant fraction of solar radiation incident on the ocean is
retained by seawater in tropical regions, resulting in average year-round surface temperatures
of about 283C. Deep, cold water, meanwhile, forms at higher latitudes and descends to Show
along the sea shoor toward the equator. The warm surface layer, which extends to depths of
about 100}200m, is separated from the deep cold water by a thermo cline. The temperature
difference, T, between the surface and thousand-meter depth ranges from 10 to 253C, with
larger differences occurring in equatorial and tropical waters is that a differential of about
203C is necessary to sustain viable operation of an OTEC facility.
Since OTEC exploits renewable solar energy, recurring costs to generate electrical power are
minimal. However, the fixed or capital costs of OTEC systems per kilowatt of generating
capacity are very high because large pipelines and heat exchangers are needed to produce
relatively modest amounts of electricity. These high fixed costs dominate the economics of
OTEC to the extent that it currently cannot compete with conventional power systems, except
in limited niche markets. Considerable effort has been expended over the past two decades to
develop OTEC by-products, such as fresh water, air conditioning, and mariculture, that could
offset the cost penalty of electricity generation
OTEC power systems operate as cyclic heat engines. They receive thermal energy through
heat transfer from surface sea water warmed by the sun, and transform a portion of this
energy to electrical power. The Second Law of Thermodynamics precludes the complete
conversion of thermal energy in to electricity. A portion of the heat extracted from the warm
sea water must be rejected to a colder thermal sink. The thermal sink employed by OTEC
systems is sea water drawn from the ocean depths by means of a submerged pipeline. A
steady-state control volume energy analysis yields the result that net electrical power
produced by the engine must equal the difference between the rates of heat transfer from the
warm surface water and to the cold deep water. The limiting (i.e., maximum) theoretical

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Carnot energy conversion efficiency of a cyclic heat engine scales with the difference
between the temperatures at which these heat transfers occur. For OTEC, this difference is
determined by T and is very small; hence, OTEC efficiency is low. Although viable OTEC
systems are characterized by Carnot efficiencies in the range of 6-8%, state-of-the-art
combustion steam power cycles, which tap much higher temperature energy sources, are
theoretically capable of converting more than 60% of the extracted thermal energy into
electricity.
The low energy conversion efficiency of OTEC means that more than 90% of the thermal
energy extracted from the ocean’s surface is ‘wasted’ and must be rejected to the cold, deep
sea water. This necessitates large heat exchangers and seawater Sow rates to produce
relatively small amounts of electricity. In spite of its inherent inefficiency, OTEC, unlike
conventional fossil energy systems, utilizes a renewable resource and poses minimal threat to
the environment. In fact, it has been suggested that widespread adoption of OTEC could yield
tangible environmental benefits through avenues such as reduction of greenhouse gas CO2
emissions; enhanced uptake of atmospheric CO2 by marine organism populations sustained
by the nutrient-rich, deep OTEC sea water; and preservation of corals and hurricane
amelioration by limiting temperature rise in the surface ocean through energy extraction and
artificial upwelling of deep water. Carnot efficiency applies only to an ideal heat engine. In
real power generation systems, ir-reversibilities will further degrade performance. Given its
low theoretical efficiency, successful implementation of OTEC power generation demands
careful engineering to minimize ir-reversibilities. Although OTEC consumes what is
essentially a free resource, poor thermodynamic performance will reduce the quantity of
electricity available for sale and, hence, negatively affect the economic feasibility of an
OTEC facility. An OTEC heat engine may be configured following designs by J.A.
D’Arsonval, the French engineer who first proposed the OTEC concept in 1881, or G.
Claude, D’Arsonval’s former student. Their designs are known, respectively, as closed cycle
and open cycle OTEC.
Closed Cycle OTEC
D’Arsonval’s original concept employed a pure working fluid that would evaporate at the
temperature of warm sea water. The vapor would subsequently expand and do work before
being condensed by the cold sea water. This series of steps would be repeated continuously
with the same working fluid, whose Sow path and thermodynamic process representation
constituted closed loops and hence, the name ‘closed cycle.’ The specific process adopted for
closed cycle OTEC is the Rankine, or vapor power, cycle. Figure 1 is a simplified schematic

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diagram of a closed cycle OTEC system. The principal components are the heat exchangers,
turbo generator, and seawater supply system, which, although not shown, accounts for most
of the parasitic power consumption and a significant fractionof the capital expense. Also not
included are ancillary devices such as separators to remove residual liquid downstream of the
evaporator and subsystems to hold and supply working fluid lost throughleaks or
contamination.

In this system, heat transfer from warm surface sea water occurs in the evaporator, producing
a saturated vapor from the working fluid. Electricity is generated when this gas expands to
lower pressure through the turbine. Latent heat is transferred from the vapor to the cold sea
water in the condenser and the resulting liquid is pressurized with a pump to repeat the cycle.
The success of the Rankine cycle is a consequence of more energy being recovered when the
vapor expands through the turbine than is consumed in re-pressurizing the liquid. In
conventional (e.g., combustion) Rankine systems, this yields net electrical power. For OTEC,
however, the remaining balance may be reduced substantially by an amount needed to pump
large volumes of sea water through the heat exchangers. (One misconception about OTEC is
that tremendous energy must be expended to bring cold sea water up from depths
approaching 1000 meters. In reality, the natural hydrostatic pressure gradient provides for
most of the increase in the gravitational potential energy of a fluid particle moving with the
gradient from the ocean depths to the surface.)
Irreversibility in the turbo machinery and heat exchangers reduce cycle efficiency below the
Carnot value. Irreversibility in the heat exchangers occur when energy is transferred over a
large

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temperature difference. It is important, therefore, to select a working fluid that will undergo
the desired phase changes at temperature established by the surface and deep sea water.
Insofar as a large number of substances can meet this requirement (because pressures and the
pressure ratio across the turbine and pump are design parameters), other factors must be
considered in the selection of a working fluid including: cost and availability, compatibility
with system materials, toxicity, and environmental hazard. Leading candidate working fluids
for closed cycle OTEC applications are ammonia and various fluorocarbon refrigerants. Their
primary disadvantage is the environmental hazard posed by leakage; ammonia is toxic in
moderate concentrations and certain fluorocarbons have been banned by the Montreal
Protocol because they deplete stratospheric ozone.
The Kalina, or adjustable proportion fluid mixture (APFM), cycle is a variant of the OTEC
closed cycle. Whereas simple closed cycle OTEC systems use a pure working fluid, the
Kalina cycle proposes to employ a mixture of ammonia and water with varying proportions at
different points in the system. The advantage of a binary mixture is that, at a given pressure,
evaporation or condensation occurs over a range of temperatures; a pure fluid, on the other
hand, changes phase at constant temperature. This additional degree of freedom allows heat
transfer-related irreversibility in the evaporator and condenser to be reduced. Although it
improves efficiency, the Kalina cycle needs additional capital equipment and may impose
severe demands on the evaporator and condenser. The efficiency improvement will require
some combination of higher heat transfer coefficients, more heat transfer surface area, and
increased seawater Sow rates. Each has an associated cost or power penalty. Additional
analysis and testing are required to confirm whether the Kalina cycle and assorted variations
are viable alternatives.
Open Cycle OTEC
Claude’s concern about the cost and potential bio-fouling of closed cycle heat exchangers led
him to propose using steam generated directly from the warm sea water as the OTEC
working fluid. The steps of the Claude, or open, cycle are: (1) flash evaporation of warm sea
water in a partial vacuum; (2) expansion of the steam through a turbine to generate power; (3)
condensation of the vapor by direct contact heat transfer to cold sea water; and (4)
compression and discharge of the condensate and any residual non condensable gases. Unless
fresh water is a desired by-product, open cycle OTEC eliminates the need for surface heat
exchangers. The name ‘open cycle’ comes from the fact that the working fluid (steam) is

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discharged after a single pass and has different initial and final thermodynamic states; hence,
the Sow path and process are ‘open.’ The essential features of an open cycle OTEC
system are presented in Figure 2.

The entire system, from evaporator to condenser, operates at partial vacuum, typically at
pressures of 1-3% of atmospheric. Initial evacuation of the system and removal of non
condensable gases during operation are performed by the vacuum compressor, which, along
with the sea water and discharge pumps, accounts for the bulk of the open cycle OTEC
parasitic power consumption. The low system pressures of open cycle OTEC are necessary to
induce boiling of the warm sea water. Flash evaporation is accomplished by exposing the sea
water to pressures below the saturation pressure corresponding to its temperature.
This is usually accomplished by pumping it into an evacuated chamber through spouts
designed to maximize heat and mass transfer surface area. Removal of gases dissolved in the
sea water, which will come out of solution in the low-pressure evaporator and compromise
operation, may be performed at an intermediate pressure prior to evaporation.
Vapor produced in the flash evaporator is relatively pure steam. The heat of vaporization is
extracted from the liquid phase, lowering its temperature and preventing any further boiling.
Flash evaporation may be perceived, then, as a transfer of thermal energy from the bulk of the
warm sea water of the small fraction of mass that is vaporized. Less than 0.5% of the mass of
warm sea water entering the evaporator is converted into steam.
The pressure drop across the turbine is established by the cold seawater temperature. At 43C,
steam condenses at 813 Pa. The turbine (or turbine diffuser) exit pressure cannot fall below
this value. Hence, the maximum turbine pressure drop is only about 3000Pa, corresponding to

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about a 3:1 pressure ratio. This will be further reduced to account for other pressure drops
along the steam path and differences in the temperatures of the steam and seawater streams
needed to facilitate heat transfer in the evaporator and condenser.
Condensation of the low-pressure steam leaving the turbine may employ a direct contact
condenser (DCC), in which cold sea water is sprayed over the vapor, or a conventional
surface condenser that physically separates the coolant and the condensate. DCCs are
inexpensive and have good heat transfer characteristics because they lack a solid thermal
boundary between the warm and cool fluids. Surface condensers are expensive and more
difficult to maintain than DCCs; however, they produce a marketable freshwater by-product
Effluent from the condenser must be discharged to the environment. Liquids are pressurized
to ambient levels at the point of release by means of a pump, or, if the elevation of the
condenser is suitably high, can be compressed hydrostatically. As noted previously, non
condensable gases, which include any residual water vapor, dissolved gases that have come
out of solution, and air that may have leaked into the system, are removed by the vacuum
compressor. Open cycle OTEC eliminates expensive heat exchangers at the cost of low
system pressures.
Partial vacuum operation has the disadvantage of making the system vulnerable to air in-
leakage and promotes the evolution of non condensable gases dissolved in sea water. Power
must ultimately be expended to pressurize and remove these gases. Furthermore, as a
consequence of the low steam density, volumetric Sow rates are very high per unit of
electricity generated. Large components are needed to accommodate these Sow rates. In
particular, only the largest conventional steam turbine stages have the potential for
integration into open cycle OTEC systems of a few megawatts gross generating capacity. It is
generally acknowledged that higher capacity plants will require a major turbine development
effort.
The mist lift and foam lift OTEC systems are variants of the OTEC open cycle. Both employ
the sea water directly to produce power. Unlike Claude’s open cycle, lift cycles generate
electricity with a hydraulic turbine. The energy expended by the liquid to drive the turbine is
recovered from the warm sea water. In the lift process, warm seawater is flash evaporated to
produce a two-phase, liquid}vapor mixture and either a mist consisting of liquid droplets
suspended in a vapor, or a foam, where vapor bubbles are contained in a continuous liquid
phase. The mixture rises, doing work against gravity. Here, the thermal energy of the vapor is
expended to increase the potential energy of the fluid. The vapor is then condensed with cold
sea water and discharged back into the ocean. Flow of the liquid through the hydraulic

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turbine may occur before or after the lift process. Advocates of the mist and foam lift cycles
contend that they are cheaper to implement than closed cycle OTEC because they require no
expensive heat exchangers, and are superior to the Claude cycle because they utilize a
hydraulic turbine rather than a low pressure steam turbine.
Hybrid Cycle OTEC
Some marketing studies have suggested that OTEC systems that can provide both electricity
and water may be able to penetrate the marketplace more readily than plants dedicated solely
to power generation. Hybrid cycle OTEC was conceived as a response to these studies.
Hybrid cycles combine the potable water production capabilities of open cycle OTEC with
the potential for large electricity generation capacities offered by the closed cycle.
Several hybrid cycle variants have been proposed. Typically, as in the Claude cycle, warm
surface seawater is Sash evaporated in a partial vacuum. This low pressure steam flows into a
heat exchanger where it is employed to vaporize a pressurized, low-boiling-point fluid such
as ammonia. During this process, most of the steam condenses, yielding desalinated potable
water. The ammonia vapor Sows through a simple closed-cycle power loop and is condensed
using cold sea water. The uncondensed steam and other gases exiting the ammonia
evaporator may be further cooled by heat transfer to either the liquid ammonia leaving the
ammonia condenser or cold sea water. The non condensable are then compressed and
discharged to the atmosphere. Steam is used as an intermediary heat transfer medium
between the warm sea water and the ammonia; consequently, the potential for bio-fouling in
the ammonia evaporator is reduced significantly. Another advantage of the hybrid cycle
related to freshwater production is that condensation occurs at significantly higher pressures
than in an open cycle OTEC condenser, due to the elimination of the turbine from the steam
Sow path. This may, in turn, yield some savings in the amount of power consumed to
compress and discharge the non condensable gases from the system.
These savings (relative to a simple Claude cycle producing electricity and water), however,
are offset by the additional back work of the closed-cycle ammonia pump. One drawback of
the hybrid cycle is that water production and power generation are closely coupled. Changes
or problems in either the water or power subsystem will compromise performance of the
other. Furthermore, there is a risk that the potable water may be contaminated by an ammonia
leak. In response to these concerns, an alternative hybrid cycle has been proposed,
comprising decoupled and water production components.

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The basis for this concept lies in the fact that warm sea water leaving a closed cycle
evaporator is still sufficiently warm, and cold seawater exiting the condenser is sufficiently
cold, to sustain an independent freshwater production process. The alternative hybrid cycle
consists of a conventional closed-cycle OTEC system that produces electricity and a
downstream Sash-evaporation-based desalination system. Water production and electricity
generation can be adjusted independently, and either can operate should a subsystem fail or
require servicing. The primary drawbacks are that the ammonia evaporator uses warm
seawater directly and is subject to bio fouling; and additional equipment, such as the potable
water surface condenser, is required, thus increasing capital expenses.
Tidal and Wave Energy
Tidal Power is the power of electricity generation achieved by capturing the energy
contained in moving water mass due to tides. Two types of tidal energy can be extracted:
kinetic energy of currents between ebbing and surging tides and potential energy from the
difference in height between high and low tides.
All coastal areas experience high and low tide. If the difference between high and low tides is
more than 16 feet, the differences can be used to produce electricity. There are approximately
40 sites on earth where tidal differences are sufficient. Tidal energy is more reliable than
wave energy because it based on the moon and we can predict them. It is intermittent,
generating energy for only 6-12 hours in each 24 hour period, so demand for energy will not
always be in line with supply.
Types of Tidal Energy
Kinetic energy from the currents between ebbing and surging tides
>This form is considered most feasible
>Potential energy from height differences between high and low tide

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Density of water is much higher than air, so ocean currents have much more energy than
wind currents.
 Barrage or Dam

Using a dam to trap water in a basin, and when reaches appropriate height due to high tide,
release water to flow through turbines that turn an electric generator.
 Tidal Fence

Turnstiles built between small islands or between mainland and islands. The turnstiles spin
due to tidal currents to generate energy.
 Tidal turbine

Look like wind turbines, often arrayed in rows but are under water. Tidal currents spin
turbines to create energy.

Like wave energy, tidal energy is used for electricity, with the ultimate goal of connecting to
local utility grids. A single 11-meter blade tidal turbine outside of Britain’s Devon coast will
be capable of generating300 kW of electricity (enough to power approximately 75 homes)
Tidal turbine
Tidal turbines look like wind turbines. They are arrayed underwater in rows, as in some wind
farms. The turbines function best where coastal currents run at between 3.6 and 4.9 knots (4
and 5.5 mph). In currents of that speed, a 15-meter (49.2-feet) diameter tidal turbine can

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generate as much energy as a 60-meter (197-feet) diameter wind turbine. Ideal locations for
tidal turbine farms are close to shore in water depths of 20–30 meters (65.5–98.5 feet).
There are different types of turbines that are available for use in a tidal barrage. A bulb
turbine is one in which water flows around the turbine. If maintenance is required then the
water must be stopped which causes a problem and is time consuming with possible loss of
generation. The La Rance tidal plant near St Malo on the Brittany coast in France uses a bulb
turbine.

Bulb Turbine
When rim turbines are used, the generator is mounted at right angles to the to the turbine
blades, making access easier. But this type of turbine is not suitable for pumping and it is
difficult to regulate its performance. One example is the Straflo turbine used at Annapolis
Royal in Nova Scotia.

Rim Turbine

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Tubular turbines have been proposed for the UK’s most promising site, The Severn Estuary,
the blades of this turbine are connected to a long shaft and are orientated at an angle so that
the generator is sitting on top of the barrage. The environmental and ecological effects of
tidal barrages have halted any progress with this technology and there are only a few
commercially operating plants in the world, one of these is the La Rance barrage in France.

Tubular turbines
Category of generation
Ebb generation
The basin is filled through the sluices and freewheeling turbines until high tide. Then the
sluice gates and turbine gates are closed. They are kept closed until the sea level falls to
create sufficient head across the barrage and the turbines generate until the head is again low.
Then the sluices are opened, turbines disconnected and the basin is filled again. The cycle
repeats itself. Ebb generation (also known as outflow generation) takes its name because
generation occurs as the tide ebbs.
Flood generation
The basin is emptied through the sluices and turbines generate at tide flood. This is generally
much less efficient than Ebb generation, because the volume contained in the upper half of
the basin (which is where Ebb generation operates) is greater than the volume of the lower
half (the domain of Flood generation).
Two-way generation
Generation occurs both as the tide ebbs and floods. This mode is only comparable to Ebb
generation at spring tides, and in general is less efficient. Turbines designed to operate in
both directions are less efficient.
Pumping

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Turbines can be powered in reverse by excess energy in the grid to increase the water level in
the basin at high tide (for Ebb generation and two-way generation). This energy is returned
during generation.

Two-basin schemes
With two basins, one is filled at high tide and the other is emptied at low tide. Turbines are
placed between the basins. Two-basin schemes offer advantages over normal schemes in that
generation time can be adjusted with high flexibility and it is also possible to generate almost
continuously. In normal estuarine situations, however, two-basin schemes are very expensive
to construct due to the cost of the extra length.

Schematic diagram of double basin tidal power generation

Wave Energy
Wave energy is an irregular and oscillating low frequency energy source that can be
converted to a 50 Hertz frequency and can then be added to the electric utility grid. Waves
get their energy from the wind, which comes from solar energy. Waves gather, store, and
transmit this energy thousands of kilometres with very little loss. Though it varies in
intensity, it is available twenty four hours a day all round the year. Wave power is renewable,
pollution free and environment friendly. Its net potential is better than wind, solar, small
hydro or biomass power. Wave energy technologies rely on the up-and-down motion of

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waves to generate electricity. There are three basic methods for converting wave energy to
electricity.

1. Float or buoy systems that use the rise and fall of ocean swells to drive hydraulic pumps.
The object can be mounted to a floating raft or to a device fixed on the ocean bed. A series of
anchored buoys rise and fall with the wave. The movement is used to run an electrical
generator to produce electricity which
is then transmitted ashore by underwater power cables.
2. Oscillating water column devices in which the in-and-out motion of waves at the shore
enters a column and force air to turn a turbine. The column fills with water as the wave rises
and empties as it descends. In the process, air inside the column is compressed and heats up,
creating energy. This energy is harnessed and sent to shore by electrical cable.

3. Tapered channel rely on a shore mounted structure to channel and concentrate the waves
driving them into an elevated reservoir. Water flow out of this reservoir is used to generate
electricity using standard hydropower technologies.
The advantages of wave energy are as follows:

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 1. Because waves originate from storms far out to sea and can travel long distances without
significant
energy loss, power produced from them is much steadier and more predictable day to day and
Season to season.
2. Wave energy contains about 1000 times the kinetic energy of wind.
3. Unlike wind and solar energy, energy from ocean waves continues to be produced round
the clock.
4. Wave power production is much smoother and more consistent than wind or solar resulting
in higher
Overall capacity factors.
5. Wave energy varies as the square of wave height whereas wind power varies with the cube
of air speed. Water being 850 times as dense as air, this result in much higher power
production from waves averaged over time.
6. Because wave energy needs only 1/200 the land area of wind and requires no access roads,
Infrastructure costs are less.

CLASSIFICATION OF MINI HYDRO POWER PLANTS

The term ‘mini-hydro power plants’ refers to plants with a capacity below 10 MW according
to the UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) classification. Its
modest size helps to reduce pressure and environmental impact. Mini hydro power plants are
classified as follows:

 pico-plants: P < 5 kW
 micro-plants: P < 100 kW
 mini-plants: P < 1.000 kW
 small-plants: P < 10.000 kW
Generally speaking, this classification is valid worldwide.

Another way of classifying mini hydro power plants is based on their functioning in relation
to the method of water intake and storage:

 Flowing water facilities: these do not have the ability to be regulated. Capacity during the
year depends on the hydrological regimen of the watercourse. The amount of energy

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 produced is strongly influenced by the capacity of the watercourse. This also represents the
main limitation of this type of facility, as the production of electricity depends on the capacity
of the watercourse that can be exploited, which by definition is variable throughout the year,
resulting in variable levels of production according to the season. As can be imagined, for
example, there is a greater production of energy in the rainy seasons.
 Regulated flow facilities (storage): these can regulate water flow using daily, weekly or
monthly regulation tanks. Regulation is linked to the tank’s storage capacity. They exploit the
potential energy contained in the water collected in natural or artificial basins. The amount of
energy produced depends mainly on the drop.
Mini hydro power plants are usually water flow facilities built next to rivers, streams or
irrigation canals with a constant speed in relation to the in stream flow (an index of the
maximum decrease in the flow of a watercourse downstream of the intake system) required to
protect the ecosystem.

ADVANTAGES OF MINI HYDROELECTRIC PLANTS

Large-scale hydroelectric power has limited residual potential nowadays, so talk of new
projects means referring especially to mini-hydro technology, an area which sees Italy hold a
substantial lead in terms of technological innovation, the ability to build facilities and
provide solutions with ample opportunities for investment in the energy sector.

From an operational point of view, one of the advantages of mini hydroelectric plants is the
ease of operation resulting from the introduction of remote monitoring and control, with
the scope of reducing the personnel involved in operational activities that are limited to
ordinary and extraordinary maintenance.

It is sometimes convenient to build pico-facilities, to provide energy for shelters or isolated

dwellings, for example. Small watercourses, creeks and streams are exploited with minimally
invasive applications that become part of the natural environment with small civil and/or
control works that manage to contribute a few kW, which is often enough to power a
refrigerator, a radio or the lighting in a shelter or cabin.

Another field of application under increasing development is energy recovery. Wherever

there are dissipative systems, such as control points and flow regulation (disconnection tanks,

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 spillways, sleepers, dividers, gates) with water drops, a turbine for the recovery of current
energy can be installed.

The advantages of mini hydroelectric plants include:

 Minimal environmental impact: zero emissions of CO2;

 High energy efficiency (about 80-85%);
 Continuous source of energy that allows the reduction of supply from sources subject to
significant fluctuations in price, such as fuels;
 Reliable, mature technology and competitive costs;
 Approval and licensing processes that are generally simpler than those for large-scale
facilities;
Relatively short construction times.

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 UNIT –IIII
Transmission Line parameters

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 Unit -4
MODELING OF TRANSMISSION LINES

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 UNIT-V
GENERAL ASPECTS OF DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS

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