Standard module hydraulic technology: A novel geometrical design methodology and analysis for a low-head hydraulic turbine system, Part I: General design methodology and basic geometry considerations

Low-head hydropower has the potential to generate a significant amount of electricity from rivers that traditionally were unsuitable for developing hydraulic power plants and supporting the resiliency of the U.S electricity system. Based on the 2016 Hydropower Vision Report, across the U.S, approximately 65.5GW of new stream-reach hydropower capacities are available. The development of those resources could be possible only if the technologies for low-head hydropower that balance efficiency, economics, and environmental sustainability were developed. The traditional hydropower design method was limited to the new challenges of the Low-head application. Therefore, a Standard Modular Hydropower Technology (SMH) was proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 2017. This new concept offers a new paradigm for small hydropower technology development based on the premise that standardization, modularity, and preservation of stream functionality must become essential and fully realized features of next-generation hydropower technologies and project designs. This technology has three major modules: Generation Module, Passage Modules, Foundation Modules. This paper is the first of this series of papers that propose and develop a new design methodology for the Generation Module that is a low impact, damless Kaplan turbine system for the low-head new stream-reach sites SMH application.