The photo is sourced from bladerunnerenergy.com
The hydro-electric unit consists of six elements: a rotor (rotating part of an electric generator) fastened with a steel cable to a floating platform on which a static generator, power electronics and a storage battery are installed. The main feature of the hydraulic unit is the rotor design, developed using biomimicry, an engineering field that draws ideas from the environment for technical solutions. The rotor is similar to a fish, with a small head, an expanding body, and a bushy tail.
Such simple design of hydraulic unit makes it possible to use the installation in an autonomous mode. Another advantage is the relative cheapness of energy; the specific capital costs per one such hydro-electric unit are $2,000 per kilowatt (KW). This is comparable to capital expenses of the large European coal-fired plants, which benefit from CAPEX savings due to returns of the scale.
Another advantage is the unit’s high-level capacity utilisation. While for solar panels this index reaches 18% to 30%, the BladeRunner Energy hydroelectric power plant accounts for 50% to 90%. Low operating costs stand in the same row: while the specific present value of electricity generated by solar panels is $0.16 to $0.28 per kilowatt-hour (KWh), for the French startup’s hydroelectric power plant these figures range from $0.05 to $0.09 per kWh.
BladeRunner Energy’s project has added to the list of inventions in the field of small hydropower that are gaining popularity amid the transition to carbon neutrality. Previously, the British VerdErg introduced a small-scale hydroelectric set that can be used to supply electricity to remote areas. An innovation of a Venturi tube type (a device for measuring the speed of water flow) was tested in Cambridgeshire in Eastern England. A 30 kW hydroelectric unit installed in a shallow pond of St Neots city is providing 32 private households with electricity, thus reducing carbon emissions by 50 tons of CO2 equivalent per year.
River-run plants (Hydraulic power plants or HPPs) devoid of artificial water reservoirs are the only hydroelectric power plants included in the EU Taxonomy, a body of documents classifying various branches of the electric power industry in terms of their contribution to sustainable development.
