Every morning, before brushing teeth or having a look at the weather outside our Victoria, Australia, off-grid home, my wife Carrie or I pad downstairs to the battery room to check the meters that monitor our electrical system.
If you have a suitable site, harnessing the energy in a stream or creek can be the most cost-effective way to make renewable electricity. Compared to the sun and wind’s variability, a stream’s flow is relatively consistent, making microhydro-electric system output the most predictable of all the renewable energy (RE) electrical systems.
A letter to the editor alerted me to my chance to finally see a microhydro system. On January 18, Vivian Stockman and I visited Mickey and Jennifer Janowski, who live at an elevation of 2,250 feet in Webster County, W.Va.
