IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v98y2012icp307-315.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Current status of the traditional watermills of the Himalayan region and the need of technical improvements for increasing their energy efficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Vashisht, A.K.

Abstract

Traditional watermills of the Himalayan region are centuries old water-power driven small-scale industry which is serving mountain inhabitants till date. But, day by day it is becoming tough for this eco-friendly technology to keep pace with modern technologies; hence its future is dubious now. Various organizations throughout the world are trying to rejuvenate and re-popularize this environment-friendly technology for multipurpose use. However, instead of improving its existing design, stress is being given to increase the adoptability of new-design watermill. In spite of all efforts, the new-design watermill has not shown any sharp impact on its adoptability rate. Certainly, there are issues which are not considered while implementing line of action. Before commencing the study, thorough discussions on the issues affecting the watermills’ existence in the region were made with the remotely residing watermill owners. Complete study is divided into two parts. In the first part, the issues that are deciding the fate of watermills’ existence in the region are discussed. Keeping all discussed-issues in mind, design of various components of an in-operation watermill is reviewed and modifications are proposed for increasing its efficiency. For the purpose, analytical expressions for evaluating watermill efficiency are also derived.

Suggested Citation

  • Vashisht, A.K., 2012. "Current status of the traditional watermills of the Himalayan region and the need of technical improvements for increasing their energy efficiency," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 307-315.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:98:y:2012:i:c:p:307-315
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.03.042
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261912002607
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.03.042?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pujol, Toni & Solà, Jordi & Montoro, Lino & Pelegrí, Marc, 2010. "Hydraulic performance of an ancient Spanish watermill," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 387-396.
    2. Vermeylen, Saskia, 2010. "Resource rights and the evolution of renewable energy technologies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 2399-2405.
    3. Paish, Oliver, 2002. "Small hydro power: technology and current status," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 6(6), pages 537-556, December.
    4. Sharma, Ramesh C. & Bisht, Yashpal & Sharma, Rekha & Singh, Deepak, 2008. "Gharats (watermills): Indigenous device for sustainable development of renewable hydro-energy in Uttrakhand Himalayas," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 2199-2206.
    5. Rojas-Sola, José Ignacio & López-García, Rafael, 2007. "Engineering graphics and watermills: Ancient technology in Spain," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 2019-2033.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anupam Bhatt & Dipika Rana & Brij Lal, 2021. "Gharat: an environment friendly livelihood source for the natives of western Himalaya, India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(12), pages 18471-18487, December.
    2. Pujol, T. & Vashisht, A.K. & Ricart, J. & Culubret, D. & Velayos, J., 2015. "Hydraulic efficiency of horizontal waterwheels: Laboratory data and CFD study for upgrading a western Himalayan watermill," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 576-586.
    3. Quaranta, E. & Revelli, R., 2016. "Optimization of breastshot water wheels performance using different inflow configurations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 243-251.
    4. Chauhan, Anurag & Saini, R.P., 2015. "Renewable energy based off-grid rural electrification in Uttarakhand state of India: Technology options, modelling method, barriers and recommendations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 662-681.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pujol, Toni & Solà, Jordi & Montoro, Lino & Pelegrí, Marc, 2010. "Hydraulic performance of an ancient Spanish watermill," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 387-396.
    2. Anupam Bhatt & Dipika Rana & Brij Lal, 2021. "Gharat: an environment friendly livelihood source for the natives of western Himalaya, India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(12), pages 18471-18487, December.
    3. Pujol, T. & Montoro, L., 2010. "High hydraulic performance in horizontal waterwheels," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 2543-2551.
    4. Quaranta, Emanuele & Revelli, Roberto, 2018. "Gravity water wheels as a micro hydropower energy source: A review based on historic data, design methods, efficiencies and modern optimizations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 414-427.
    5. Pujol, T. & Vashisht, A.K. & Ricart, J. & Culubret, D. & Velayos, J., 2015. "Hydraulic efficiency of horizontal waterwheels: Laboratory data and CFD study for upgrading a western Himalayan watermill," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 576-586.
    6. Kan, Kan & Zhang, Qingying & Xu, Zhe & Zheng, Yuan & Gao, Qiang & Shen, Lian, 2022. "Energy loss mechanism due to tip leakage flow of axial flow pump as turbine under various operating conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    7. Joe Butchers & Shaun Benzon & Sam Williamson & Julian Booker & George Aggidis, 2021. "A Rationalised CFD Design Methodology for Turgo Turbines to Enable Local Manufacture in the Global South," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-23, October.
    8. Vermaak, Herman Jacobus & Kusakana, Kanzumba & Koko, Sandile Philip, 2014. "Status of micro-hydrokinetic river technology in rural applications: A review of literature," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 625-633.
    9. Abolhosseini, Shahrouz & Heshmati, Almas & Altmann, Jörn, 2014. "A Review of Renewable Energy Supply and Energy Efficiency Technologies," IZA Discussion Papers 8145, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Javed, Muhammad Shahzad & Ma, Tao & Jurasz, Jakub & Canales, Fausto A. & Lin, Shaoquan & Ahmed, Salman & Zhang, Yijie, 2021. "Economic analysis and optimization of a renewable energy based power supply system with different energy storages for a remote island," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1376-1394.
    11. Kumar, Deepak & Katoch, S.S., 2015. "Sustainability suspense of small hydropower projects: A study from western Himalayan region of India," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 220-233.
    12. Elgammi, Moutaz & Hamad, Abduljawad Ashour, 2022. "A feasibility study of operating a low static pressure head micro pelton turbine based on water hammer phenomenon," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 1-16.
    13. Ram Adhikari & David Wood, 2018. "The Design of High Efficiency Crossflow Hydro Turbines: A Review and Extension," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-18, January.
    14. Kahraman, Gökhan & Yücel, Halit Lütfi & Öztop, Hakan F., 2009. "Evaluation of energy efficiency using thermodynamics analysis in a hydropower plant: A case study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1458-1465.
    15. Sotoude Haghighi, M.H. & Mirghavami, S.M. & Chini, S.F. & Riasi, A., 2019. "Developing a method to design and simulation of a very low head axial turbine with adjustable rotor blades," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 266-276.
    16. Spänhoff, Bernd, 2014. "Current status and future prospects of hydropower in Saxony (Germany) compared to trends in Germany, the European Union and the World," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 518-525.
    17. Cobb, Bryan R. & Sharp, Kendra V., 2013. "Impulse (Turgo and Pelton) turbine performance characteristics and their impact on pico-hydro installations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 959-964.
    18. Khan, Rakhshanda, 2015. "Small Hydro Power in India: Is it a sustainable business?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 207-216.
    19. Pang, Mingyue & Zhang, Lixiao & Bahaj, AbuBakr S. & Xu, Kaipeng & Hao, Yan & Wang, Changbo, 2018. "Small hydropower development in Tibet: Insight from a survey in Nagqu Prefecture," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 3032-3040.
    20. Laghari, J.A. & Mokhlis, H. & Bakar, A.H.A. & Mohammad, Hasmaini, 2013. "A comprehensive overview of new designs in the hydraulic, electrical equipments and controllers of mini hydro power plants making it cost effective technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 279-293.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:98:y:2012:i:c:p:307-315. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.