Performance in Feasibility Studies of Micro Hydro Power Plants.New Software Development and Application Cases in Cameroon.

摘要

Currently in the world,the development of renewable energy appears as a relevant contribution fighting against the climate change.Micro hydro power plants(MHPP)are an excellent method of harnessing renewable energy.Cameroon has lots of small waterfalls suitable for the development of MHPP.But,their development is not yet effective because of the lack of data and technology skills.The objective of this work is to develop and propose a software tool for the feasibility studies of MHPP in Cameroon,which take into account locals advantages and constraints in the intention to contribute to the efficiency of their development in that country.The software named Mass_Hydro has been developed using the development environment called Eclipse.That tool has particularity to allow respectively,through nine(9)modules,to register data about acknowledgement of the site and calculate the height of the waterfall(m),to estimate the demand of power(kW),calculate the potential(kW),plot flow duration curve and propose a installed power(kW),propose a turbine,estimate the investment cost and simulate the profitability,payback period and finally help to design Weir,intake,channel,fore bay,penstock and power house.The effectiveness of that software was successfully confirmed in the application on two MHPP(Kemken and Bakassa)already studied in Cameroon.