Pelton (PLT) Info

 

 

Our Pelton (PLT) turbine is a cost effective, robust and reliable product. It is best suited for medium to high head sites that have flow rates <8 l/s. Low head sites with flows <10 l/s may also be well suited for a PLT turbine. A PLT turbine is a low flow turbine so tends to be used on higher head sites typically >20m.

The PLT can work off-grid, on-grid or directly connected to a resistive element. A standard turbine is capable of up to 1200 watts, the high power turbine is capable of up to 1600 watts (special cases up to 2000 watts). Thousands of these turbines are running around the world and they have been proven to be very reliable and cost effective.

If you have a site that can generate more power than one turbine, you simply install as many as you need up to the limit of the water flow resource.

The Powerspout PLT is situated at the end of a long pipe that creates the fall. The head of pressure is this fall. At the turbine there are jets which convert the pressure (head energy) to a high velocity jet (kinetic energy). This high velocity jet impacts on a specially shaped Pelton rotor that extracts almost all the energy from the high velocity flow. This Pelton rotor is directly connected to a permanent magnet alternator which produces electricity. The current is rectified within the unit to DC suitable for a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) battery charge controller or a grid-tied inverter (GTI). Contrary to popular myth, DC is more efficient than AC for transmission of power in cables.

It is important that this supply pipe is always full of water, in the dry season you may need to install a smaller jet to ensure the pipe always remains full.

 

The generation capacity of your site is determined by the water supply, primarily by the vertical distance the water falls (head) and how much water flows in a given time (flow rate). 

Required head and flow per turbine:

Head: 3 - 130 meters

Flow: 0.5 - 8 litres/second