We finally got around to repairing the 1820's stone and cement dam that had been holding a very small impoundment (1000 gal) of water for our private hydro power plant.
We built the plant in 2006-7 and ran autonomously off the grid until 2014 when we got net metered to the grid. We would freeze up every winter when temps dropped below zero due to too little water above the intake.
The repaired, improved and strengthened dam will give us deeper water above the intake and protect against catastrophic failure incase of flood carried boulders pounding the back of the dam.
This story begins with a short movie clip of the 2, 2011 storms, one two punch, named Irene and lee taken just upstream from the dam. The intake flume is on the left and barely survived.
Note the force with which the water carrying boulders hits the vertical back of the old dam.
The plywood covers a collection box for a possible future Coanda screen for summer operation.
We built the plant in 2006-7 and ran autonomously off the grid until 2014 when we got net metered to the grid. We would freeze up every winter when temps dropped below zero due to too little water above the intake.
The repaired, improved and strengthened dam will give us deeper water above the intake and protect against catastrophic failure incase of flood carried boulders pounding the back of the dam.
This story begins with a short movie clip of the 2, 2011 storms, one two punch, named Irene and lee taken just upstream from the dam. The intake flume is on the left and barely survived.
Note the force with which the water carrying boulders hits the vertical back of the old dam.
