Abstract:
The goal of this project is to design and build a micro-hydro electric power system for use in rural parts of India which do not currently have power, but do have access to streams and small waterfalls. There are many parts of this project which will be required before the end of the year. I will be spending the first semester designing the turbine and building it using various inexpensive or reused parts. The second semester will primarily consist of finding ways to bring this to market on a large enough scale to make an impact. In terms of deliverables, the first is building a micro hydro turbine which is inexpensive enough in terms of parts to be sold in rural and extremely poor areas of a developing country like India. The second would be to write a proposal/business plan for how one could viably take this product to market and have the desired impact of providing power to extremely poor regions of India. If the project is successful, then hopefully a complete blue-print would be in place for anyone to try to bring electricity to the most rural and remote regions of India which have been largely left behind as India has developed over the past ten years.
Full report (pdf)