Professor Ralph Sims in the woolshed where hydro-
gen is converted to usable power supply.

Massey’s Centre for Energy Research is backing a combined hydro, solar and wind energy project that aims to supply the power needs of a small rural community in the Totara Valley, Tararua District.

It consists of a mini-hydro turbine, wind turbine, solar panels and biodiesel generator, providing power for five households and several woolsheds and workshops and enabling them to sell power into the national grid when they have too much or buy it when the wind, sun and water flows cannot meet demand.

Energy specialist Professor Ralph Sims, from the Institute of Technology and Engineering, says small, renewable power generation close to users is the way of the future as opposition grows to large fossil fuel-burning thermal power stations and the large pylons required to carry the output to customers.

“Today, big central power generators are what we depend on.  In the future, they will be supplemented by thousands of small, distributed generation plants that will become more dominant.”

He says communities are more likely to accept the environmental impacts of tapping part of a local waterway or putting a wind turbine on a hill if they directly benefit from the output and reduce their dependence on distant power generators.

The project has found innovative ways to get around some of the costs and visual problems associate with transmission. For example, the wind turbine, 2km up a hill  from the homes, could have meant spending $26,000 to install copper lines to carry the electricity down. Instead, the wind energy is used to convert water to hydrogen, which is piped to a fuel cell in a woolshed and there converted into electricity.

The $6000 alkathene gas pipe also provides the advantage of being able to store up to six hours worth of energy, an alternative to battery storage, which would have added to the capital cost.

The Crown research institute Industrial Research is also involved in the project, providing technical expertise, meters and other equipment, while lines companies Scanpower, of nearby Dannevirke, and MainPower, of Rangiora, are also sponsors.