Abstract
Micro hydro power is suitable for Japan, which has many rivers, but it is not sufficiently spread in present. On the other hand, a lot of water wheels had been used for thread twisting in the region around Ashikaga city, which is home ground of our institute, exists until early Showa era. In this study, by using properties of traditional water wheels which existed in the region around Ashikaga city, the authors set to work to develop the micro hydro turbine generator which can be used at low head condition without major construction for installation. As the results of the performance test of a micro hydro turbine generator, Maximum power of 8.2W at 0.8m/s and 12.8W at 1.0m/s were obtained. Moreover, it was found that output power is also fairly increased by introduction of power augmentation unit such as a confuser and a diffuser.
