Development of a standalone pico-hydropower system in monitoring the gully environment applications in Pingtung Ur-Pho Gully

The main objective of this study is to determine the eco-friendly pico-hydropower system (PHS) for monitoring Ur-Pho Gully water environment. Taiwan is plentiful in water resources, and the low-head PHS can be driven by continuous flowing water energy in any gully. The self-powered monitoring platform offers a lot of valuable information, such as water power, green electricity, battery storage, and gully situation (flow rate/water level/water quality) for further long-term environmental research in Ur-Pho Gully and also provides additional green power for controlling water valve and lighting street lamps at the local village. An innovative PHS consists of supply pipe, dual-blades reaction turbine, AC generator, and monitoring platform. The results show that the supply pipe can achieve about 292 W water power under a flow rate $\sim 0.025 \mathrm{m}^{3} /\mathrm{s}$ and $\sim 1.4\mathrm{m}$ potential. The reaction turbine designs with 150 mm diameter, 25 stator blades and 21 rotor blades can provide shaft torque about 1.7-2 N-m in a rotating speed 769 rpm. Then the rated capacity of 200 W permanent magnet generator is connected to the turbine for supplying electricity to the monitoring platform.