Hydro Turbine Cost

Are you planning to buy hydro turbines? One of the questions that you will ask yourself is: are hydro turbines expensive or are they cheap? It all boils down to the cost of the hydro turbines.

In this article, we are going to do a detailed analysis of the cost of hydro turbines. At the end of it, you will know how much you will spend on these turbines for electricity generation.

When you are making plans to buy a hydropower generator, one of the first things that you need to consider is the cost. However, this is not an easy task because several factors can affect the cost of hydro turbines.

Factors that determine the hydro turbine cost estimation of hydro turbines

Here are some of the key factors that determine the hydro turbine cost:

Manufacturers/vendors

There are several manufacturers and vendors in the market today who manufacture and sell turbines for electricity generation production. They have varying costs depending on their products. This will contribute a lot to the overall cost of hydro turbines when you go shopping around for them.

With all these variants in mind, it won’t be easy to know what kind of money you should allocate for your hydro turbines.

 However, there are a number of ways that you can use to get an idea of how much hydro turbines cost. One way is by getting quotes from several vendors in your locality and weigh them against each other.

 Turbine Size 

The size of the turbine will directly affect its overall cost. 

Generally, small-size hydro turbine generators are cheaper than large ones simply because they require less material for their construction.

 An example is the Kaplan water wheel turbines which are more expensive than Francis water wheels.

 When it comes to installation costs but cheaper over time because of reduced maintenance costs due to fewer moving parts and lower installation costs. 

There are ultra-small hydro turbines such as micro hydro which can be used for household electricity generation, and they are cheaper because of their size.

You can find out the 100kw hydro turbine cost, 1MW hydro turbine cost, or even a mini hydropower plant cost.

Turbine Type

There are different types of hydro turbine generators which you can use to generate power from water in your area. These include horizontal axis turbine, vertical axis hydro turbines, underwater turbines, and many more.

 Depending on the type you choose will affect the cost of these generators to some extent since some turbines require less material than others do. 

For instance, tidal stream turbines need longer blades and a huge concrete base worth millions of dollars for them to operate effectively. 

On the other hand, run-off river hydro turbines only have a short blade structure compared to the tidal stream one thus they require less money in terms of material.

 Turbine Efficiency

The efficiency of the hydro turbine will also affect its cost. 

Remember, the higher the efficiency the lower your electricity bills are likely to be since you need fewer hydro turbines for a certain amount of power generation.

 However, this can only be achieved when your generator is designed well and with little or no defects in it.

 Hydro turbines that have low efficiency tend to require more maintenance after use which translates into increased costs for you to make sure they last long.

 For instance, tidal stream generators are known for their low efficiency because they need higher construction costs compared to run-off – river ones. But it helps them operate effectively more than other hydro turbines without requiring high maintenance costs to keep them running.

Power (watts) = Head (m) x Flow (liters/sec) x 9.81 (gravitational constant ‘g’)
A typical water to wire efficiency is around 60%–70%, so you should multiply the result by 0.6–0.7 to get the actual amount of electricity that you can expect from the site.

Economical and geographical factors

The price of hydro turbines might vary depending on the type of economic regime you are living in. During times of high inflation, the prices of goods tend to increase per unit thus increasing the cost of your hydro turbine when you go shopping around for them.

 The best way to avoid having inflated prices is by shopping early so that you can be sure that there are no increases in price within a given time frame otherwise you will have wasted all your effort and money.

Rated power

 Hydro turbines that have higher rated power will cost you more than the ones which have lower capacity. The reason is simple; large hydro turbines are more expensive due to their larger structures and other factors such as the force of water, turbine characteristics, etc.

  Material  for the turbine

Different types of materials are used to create hydro turbines with some being more expensive than others depending on their characteristics as mentioned earlier. 

But still, most hydro turbine material costs about $5 per watt which is cheap compared to other methods of generating electricity. For instance, using fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and gas costs $10 per watt.

  Hydro turbine maintenance cost

 After using your hydro turbines for some time you will realize that eventually, they will break down especially after encountering a significant amount of wear and tear. 

Thus if you want to maintain the proper functionality of your hydro turbines then you might have to spend money on their maintenance which is another factor affecting the overall cost of these generators.

 For instance, turbine maintenance costs $40 per kW/h during the first five years but increases to $47 per kW/h in the next fifteen years.

Choose affordable hydro turbine manufacturer in China

When it comes to hydro turbines, finding a reputable manufacturer is the key to success

   A reputable company; doesn’t only mean they are professional or have many years of experience in manufacturing hydro turbines. In fact, they should be able to manufacture excellent products and services at low costs so that you can afford them easily even with your tight budget. 

Usually though quality and price go hand-in-hand thus if you want something made cheaply then there’s a big chance it won’t last long enough for you to make good money from its returns. 

Thus finding an affordable yet high-quality hydro turbine manufacturer in China is critical for your business’ success otherwise you might just end up losing all your earnings. 

In conclusion, the cost of your hydro turbine depends majorly on the location you want to install it at; so choose somewhere that is easy to access and then hire a reputable company for installation purposes.

 Finally, make sure that they can manufacture high-quality products within your budget.  Otherwise, you might end up spending more than anticipated since low costs usually mean low quality and low quality means lower returns from your hydro turbines.

If you want to know Hydro Turbine Cost, please send your water head and flow rate information to us for a quick quote.