Tenant & Applicant Frequently Asked Questions

Question 1

What is the price of Turbulent turbines?

Answer

Depending on several variables regarding the customer’s situation, such as the local energy prices, current energy solution, using expensive diesel and others, Turbulent offers projects with a return on investment between four to eight years. In many cases, it can be less than six years.When our solution is being used to replace diesel generators in remote areas, the payback period can be as low as two years. Regarding other renewable energy resources, such as solar energy, our hydropower technology has a competitive price to a solar plant with batteries. A Turbulent hydropower turbine is an investment. An investment in yourself, your company, in your future, in short, in a better world. Our projects supply enough energy to respectively power between 33 and 440 households*. In a remote community, these numbers can add to 185 to 2000 households**. In addition, our sustainable and eco-friendly technology will withstand severe weather conditions, such as floodings, which means no extra repair costs due to external factors.

*Based on a 4000 kWh average yearly energy consumption, for an on-grid project.
**Based on a 700 kWh average yearly energy consumption, for an off-grid project.

Question 2

How can I know if my river is suitable for thr Turbulent turbine?

Answer

Please have a look at our easy hydropower manual here. If you have these values, you can easily compare them with our product range to see if it is possible.

You can also watch our YouTube video here to see good examples of drops and flows.

Question 3

Would it be possible in the future to have a closed-circuit created inside the system so that there’s always power cycling?

Answer

Sorry, but this is not possible. It goes against the laws of physics and is called a perpetuum mobile.

Question 4

Does the Turbulent turbine turn the other direction on the different hemispheres?

Answer

No, Coriolis force is negligible. For more information, watch this explanatory video.

Question 5

Are the Turbulent turbines useful as emergency generators during power outages?

Answer

Due to grid regulations, the generator must disconnect when there is a power outage. This is to protect workers. Although it is not impossible to continue generating energy during a power outage, we do not provide this feature by default yet. We are available to look for the custom solution you need.

Question 6

Can I store energy for when there is no water?

Answer

We do not yet natively integrate energy storage in our system. If desired, a home backup battery system can be installed.

Question 7

What happens if there is no water flow in winter?

Answer

For those places where the temperature is freezing, our turbines will keep working as long as the water flows. Our turbines are adapted with thick rubber coating that can shake off the ice (similar to the turbine cones of Boeing but made specially for low rpm). Once the river is frozen, the turbine will stop. No damage will happen to the turbine because of freezing temperatures.

Question 8

Can I install a Turbulent turbine if I already have solar panels?

Answer

Yes, you can use a hydro turbine together with solar panels or wind turbines without much trouble. Depending on the installed power, we might have to ask your distributor to reinforce your connection to support the additional energy.

Question 9

Can Turbulent turbines be used independently from the mains or off-grid?

Answer

Yes, our turbines can be fitted for off-grid usage. We recommend however to opt for a connected system if you have one available. This way your excess energy is sold, leading to a faster return on your investment.

Question 10

Does the Turbulent turbine also work on single-phase connections?

Answer

Our turbines are always equipped with a 3 phase generator and hence require a 3 phase connection or network. A single phase solution is possible up to 25 kW, but will have an additional cost as it adds complexity to the system.

Question 11

Which voltages and frequencies do the Turbulent turbines support?

Answer

We can fit our turbines to work with any electricity distribution standard in your country. Our operating voltages range from 200V to 480V and both 50Hz and 60Hz systems are supported.

Question 12

Is there a flood risk?

Answer

No dam means no flood risk related to the installation. Your stream will behave in the same way, as if untouched, structure unchanged.

Question 13

Is the water flow impeded by the Turbulent turbine?

Answer

No, this is one of the key features of our technology. Water circulates for a few seconds in the plant before moving downstream. Therefore, no impact at all on your flow or the flow of your neighbours.

Question 14

What's the efficiency of the Turbulent turbine?

Answer

The total efficiency of a Turbulent turbine is 60%. This means the Turbulent turbines can transform 60% of the energy that is in the water into electricity.

Question 15

Is the Turbulent turbine debris-tolerant? How does Turbulent solve the debris problem?

Answer

We designed this turbine to be debris tolerant. It is a slow turning turbine (+-100 rpm) with a major spacing between the blades. Our rotor is designed with a leading edge Naca profile Leading Edge that creates a pressure distribution ahead of this edge. This guides the debris and fish past the blade without getting entangled.

Question 16

Is the Turbulent turbine a fixed pitch propeller?

Answer

Turbulent turbines are indeed fixed pitch. This makes the design and installation simpler and reduces the need for maintenance on the equipment while increasing its lifetime.

Question 17

Could you send me a more detailed technical document?

Answer

Sure, you can download our technical brochure here.

Question 18

What is included in the whole product set other than the Turbulent turbine and generator?

Answer

All the systems to make the turbine operational such as propeller, generator, power conversion, cabling, turbine core unit and control software are included. Only the civil works are built on site by our local partner.

Question 19

How long is the product warranty?

Answer

The warranty is for 1 year by which time all possible defects will be shown. After this first year, your main cost will be maintenance and planned repairs, as quantified under our operational expenditures. The rotor itself can last 5 years and the generator is rated for 15 years. All in all, the large structure such as the basin can last for up to 50 years.

Question 20

How much maintenance is required for the Turbulent turbine and who takes care of it?

Answer

Our maintenance work is very low. Thanks to a protective trash rack for large debris, small debris can safely pass and therefore minimize the risk of blockage. The low turning velocity also increases the lifespan of all parts. Turbulent, or our local partner, takes care of the maintenance for you, according to the plan you choose. Click here to see what’s involved in our maintenance plan.

Question 21

How fast can a Turbulent project be set up?

Answer

Between 2 to 5 months after signing the contract and partial payment, we will have the core unit ready to ship. The building of the civil works will take on average 2 to 4 weeks, and the installation of the core unit including commissioning will take up to 2 weeks. This means in the best case, a project can be up and running in as little as 3 months.

Question 22

How much revenue can a Turbulent turbine generate?

Answer

The advantage of hydropower is it runs 24h a day, 7 days a week. If you want to calculate your revenue, take the amount of power you can install, multiply it by 7500 and your electricity price, and you get your revenue.

Question 23

Micro-hydro projects have incorporated agro-processing facilities such as rice mills—alongside standard electrification—into the project design. Can you run similar machinery supporting small businesses?

Answer

This is actually a very smart way to use the excess energy that you are producing. Considering that our turbine is turning at a very low speed but with very high torque this makes it possible to power agricultural equipment as well as small industry machines without any problem. Our turbine is perfectly suited to do this because it is so easy to manufacture.

Question 24

Why is the Turbulent turbine better than other sources of renewable energy?

Answer

We can produce energy constantly, day and night. Therefore, our technology is more reliable and the price per kWh is way lower than any other source of energy!

Question 25

Who are the competitors and how are Turbulent turbines different?

Answer

We develop our turbines specifically for ultra-low head sites with a low installation cost. Using the natural principle of the vortex creates a turbine that is subject to very low forces and that is fish friendly. This way we can use composites in our high unit volume production and can make the turbine light (it can be carried by 4 people when it’s in modular segments) and local entrepreneurs can do the maintenance and repairs. Although we acknowledge our esteemed competition in their goal of creating sustainable hydropower, all current small hydropower technologies still rely on specialty components and special concrete structures. That way they always need a specialist (read: flying engineers in) to install and repair. A few companies also started using a Rankine vortex for energy production, but they couldn’t achieve a small size and high efficiency.

Most hydro power technology providers are focusing on the highest possible efficiency, but forget to design for robustness and a low maintenance design. All of these technologies require expert knowledge to maintain and repair them.

Turbulent vortex turbines are designed with our end-users in mind. They are simple to maintain, simple to repair and require no expert knowledge whatsoever, to keep them going.

Question 26

What is the scalability of these units? Can it be used for bigger cities or mainly rural areas? Is it possible to build larger/bigger units/projects to increase the power?

Answer

The Turbulent turbine units are scalable in size to 100kW. By increasing our 15kW to a 100kW, the increase in power follows an exponential growth. By installing more Turbulent turbines in parallel and series along the length of the river you can increase the power output and reach MW projects that can power entire cities. The benefit is that you can cascade the turbines and produce the energy close to communities to limit distribution losses. Our decentralized approach also allows you to use standard series-produced turbines that are being manufactured at a lower cost.

Question 27

Is there a length limit for the power line (the distance from the power source to the site in need of energy)?

Answer

The limit of cabling is around 1 km for a 15kW turbine, because of the cost of cabling. For larger projects, we can provide a transformer to go through higher voltages which allows longer distances of up to 30 kilometres.

Question 28

Why do Turbulent turbines need a constant flow?

Answer

A constant flow with low fluctuations (within 40% of the design flow) will generate a constant output power. If your stream has significant flow variations, the output power will also be affected by these fluctuations.

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