Since the huge hydroelectric power projects of the last century – and all the way up to the Three Rivers Gorge hydro-project that is still being completed in China today – we all tend to think of hydroelectric power as requiring a project of massive dimensions. Obviously, as your photograph shows, this was not always the case.
There are still mill-races and mill ponds and even the old watermills themselves scattered across the areas of North America and Europe that are not just plain too flat. However, most of these are long out of service, haven given way to the economies of scale, both on the side of the service, milling grain or sawing wood, and also in terms of the costs of energy production. Today, they’re considered outdated, antiquated, and downright dangerous ways to use water that maybe doesn’t even flow where it used to.
There is however a new trend, and that is, in essence, going back to the old mill principle: mini- and micro-hydroelectric projects. It is common today in the Alps of Europe to see traces of piping carrying water down mountainsides and being channelled into small water-powered generators. These installations are mostly around 30 to 80 years old, and almost all are technically up-to-date and functioning.
There are also new mini- and micro-hydroelectric projects being installed in Europe at an ever-increasing rate, particularly in eastern Europe. Alternative energy? Maybe more like “main stream” energy!
To read more about this subject and many others as well, I would like to invite your readers to visit our new website.

Craig Hesser
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