Hopkins Hydropower: Dual-Siphon Design for Generating Hydropower
Project Description:
This academic year, our team entered the Hydropower Collegiate Competition, which challenged universities across the country to design ways to power currently non-powered dams. Traditionally, hydropower retrofits require expensive structural changes to large dams. A significant market of medium-sized older dams are left untouched, which inspired us to design a modular, scalable, hydropower solution that could be implemented in this untapped market. Our solution uses a dual siphon system with two pipes that go over a dam instead of through it. A small siphon uses very little power to eventually start a large siphon, and the continuous flow of water travels through a turbine. When one dual-siphon unit is used in parallel with a second, the system can theoretically generate 1.4 MW of power.
Project Photo:
This photo shows a high-level image of our dual-siphon system implemented over the top of a dam.