Bethlehem Hydro owns and operates two small hydro power plants situated in the Dihlabeng Local Municipality (Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality) in the Free State province of South Africa. The scheme utilizes the water supplied to South Africa by the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which releases water into the As River via a tunnel outlet near the town of Clarens. South Africa has limited potential for hydro energy due to low average annual rainfall making projects like Bethlehem Hydro rare. The project was identified in 1999 and developed by NuPlanet Project Development. The two power stations in the scheme will cut back carbon dioxide emissions by 33,000 tons per year by reducing the demand for traditional fossil-fuel power stations. [1]
The Sol Plaatje Power Station was the first commercial small hydro power station constructed in South Africa for 22 years. [2] It was commissioned in November 2009 and is located close to Bethlehem, Free State. The power station was constructed next to the existing dam wall of the Sol Plaatje dam. The power station has an installed capacity of 3 MW [3] and has a double regulated horizontal axis Kaplan turbine.
The Merino Power is a run-of-river type hydro power station situated 10 km downstream from the tunnel outlet of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. The power station consists of an intake weir, a 600 m canal and a power house with a double regulated horizontal Kaplan turbine. The power station has an installed capacity of 4 MW. [4]
Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje was a South African intellectual, journalist, linguist, politician, translator and writer. Plaatje was a founding member and first General Secretary of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), which became the African National Congress (ANC). The Sol Plaatje Local Municipality, which includes the city of Kimberley, is named after him, as is the Sol Plaatje University in that city, which opened its doors in 2014.
Small hydro is the development of hydroelectric power on a scale suitable for local community and industry, or to contribute to distributed generation in a regional electricity grid. Exact definitions vary, but a "small hydro" project is less than 50 megawatts (MW), and can be further subdivide by scale into "mini" (<1MW), "micro" (<100 kW), "pico" (<10 kW). In contrast many hydroelectric projects are of enormous size, such as the generating plant at the Three Gorges Dam at 22,500 megawatts or the vast multiple projects of the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower. Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and also more than nuclear power. Hydropower can provide large amounts of low-carbon electricity on demand, making it a key element for creating secure and clean electricity supply systems. A hydroelectric power station that has a dam and reservoir is a flexible source, since the amount of electricity produced can be increased or decreased in seconds or minutes in response to varying electricity demand. Once a hydroelectric complex is constructed, it produces no direct waste, and almost always emits considerably less greenhouse gas than fossil fuel-powered energy plants. However, when constructed in lowland rainforest areas, where part of the forest is inundated, substantial amounts of greenhouse gases may be emitted.
Loch Awe is a large body of freshwater in Argyll and Bute, Scottish Highlands. It has also given its name to a village on its banks, variously known as Loch Awe or Lochawe. There are islands within the loch such as Innis Chonnell and Inishail.
The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to achieve efficiency over a wide range of flow and water level.
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) is an ongoing water supply project with a hydropower component, developed in partnership between the governments of Lesotho and South Africa. It comprises a system of several large dams and tunnels throughout Lesotho and delivers water to the Vaal River System in South Africa. In Lesotho, it involves the rivers Malibamatso, Matsoku, Senqunyane, and Senqu. It is Africa's largest water transfer scheme.
The Barron Gorge Hydroelectric Power Station in Queensland, Australia is an electricity power station commissioned in 1963 with a maximum capacity of 66 megawatts (89,000 hp). It is located in the locality of Barron Gorge in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area 20 kilometres (12 mi) north-west of Cairns. It replaced an earlier station which was the first underground power station in the country and the first hydroelectric station in Queensland. The power station was refurbished in 2006.
The Tummel hydro-electric power scheme is an interconnected network of dams, power stations, aqueducts and electric power transmission in the Grampian Mountains of Scotland. Roughly bounded by Dalwhinnie in the north, Rannoch Moor in the west and Pitlochry in the east it comprises a water catchment area of around 1,800 square kilometres and primary water storage at Loch Ericht, Loch Errochty, Loch Rannoch and Loch Tummel, in Perth and Kinross. Water, depending on where it originates and the path it takes, may pass through as many as five of the schemes nine power stations as it progresses from north-west to south-east. The scheme was constructed in the 1940s and 50s incorporating some earlier sites. It is managed by SSE plc.
The Affric-Beauly hydro-electric power scheme for the generation of hydro-electric power is located in the western Highlands of Scotland. It is based around Glen Strathfarrar, Glen Cannich and Glen Affric, and Strathglass further downstream.
The Glendoe Hydro Scheme for the generation of hydro-electric power is located near Fort Augustus, above Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland.
The As River is a tributary of the Liebenbergsvlei River in the eastern Free State, South Africa. Since 1968 it is impounded by the Sol Plaatje Dam at its confluence with the latter river, just east of Bethlehem. Its origin is some 35 km southeast of Bethlehem, on the northern slopes of the Rooiberge, near Clarens. With the opening of the northern delivery tunnel of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project in 1998, the once tiny stream was transformed to a strong-flowing river.
Sol Plaatje Dam is an earth-fill type dam located at the confluence of the As and Liebenbergsvlei Rivers near Bethlehem, Free State, South Africa. It was established in 1968 and serves mainly for municipal and domestic water supply. The hazard potential of the dam has been ranked high. The reservoir receives water from the Lesotho Highlands Water Project via the As River.
The Cruachan Power Station is a pumped-storage hydroelectric power station in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The scheme can provide 440 MW of power and produced 705 GWh in 2009.
The Longyangxia Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam at the entrance of the Longyangxia canyon on the Yellow River in Gonghe County, Qinghai Province, China. The dam is 178 metres (584 ft) tall and was built for the purposes of hydroelectric power generation, irrigation, ice control and flood control. The dam supports a 1,280 MW power station with 4 x 320 MW generators that can operate at a maximum capacity of 1400 MW. Controlling ice, the dam controls downstream releases to reservoirs lower in the river, allowing them to generate more power instead of mitigating ice. Water in the dam's 24.7 billion m3 reservoir provides irrigation water for up to 1,000,000 hectares of land.
Stave Falls Dam is a dual-dam power complex on the Stave River in Stave Falls, British Columbia, Canada. The dam was completed in 1912 for the primary purpose of hydroelectric power production. To increase the capacity of Stave Lake, the dam was raised in 1925 and the Blind Slough Dam constructed in an adjacent watercourse 500 m (1,600 ft) to the north, which was the site of the eponymous Stave Falls. In 2000, the dam's powerhouse was replaced after a four-year upgrade. The original Stave Falls powerhouse was once British Columbia's largest hydroelectric power source, and is a National Historic Site of Canada.
The Çetin Dam hydropower dam, on the Botan River in Siirt Province, Turkey, with an installed capacity of 420 MW. It was completed in 2020.
The Breadalbane Hydro-Electric Scheme is a hydroelectric scheme in the Breadalbane area of Perthshire, Scotland. It comprises seven power stations which generate 120MW of power from the dams around Loch Lyon, Loch Earn and Loch Tay.
Wreck Cove is the largest hydroelectric system in Nova Scotia with a generating capacity of 215.8 MW. Constructed from 1975 to 1978, south of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Wreck Cove collects drainage water from 216 square kilometres (83 sq mi) of the Cape Breton Highlands plateau to generate renewable electricity. It consists of two generating stations: the Gisborne Generating Station, with an installed capacity of 3.5 MW, and the Wreck Cove Generating Station, with an installed capacity of 212 MW, producing on average 318 GWh annually—enough energy to power about 30,000 homes.
The Mpatamanga Hydro Power Project, is a 361MW hydroelectric generating project under developpement at Mpatamanga on the Shire River, in Malawi
The Awe Hydro-Electric Scheme was the penultimate scheme developed by the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board. It centres around Loch Awe, in Argyll and Bute, on the southern edge of the Scottish Highlands. It consists of three power stations, two conventional hydro-electric stations, and the Cruachan power station, the first large pumped storage scheme built by the Board. It was completed in 1965.
