Efficiency Enhancement of Agnew Hydro Turbine for Application at Micro Hydro Potentials in Iran

Due to limitation of fossil fuel resources, other renewable sources of energy such as hydro plants have found wide spread application. However, in countries where limited hydro potentials are widely available, micro hydro plants have strongly attracted attentions. The very main application of micro hydros is in the rural areas where end users of electricity are far from the electricity net work that by no means the extension of the net work can be economically justified. Agnew micro hydro is an axial flow, 45? Kaplan turbine. Due to presence of thousands of limited potentials in Iran, a joint project on redesigning and development of Agnew turbine was under taken between Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST) and the Glasgow university. For Undertaking this project a test laboratory was designed and prepared at IROST. Test results showed a 23% increase of the best performance of the turbine. In this article, the turbine and the test rig have been briefly introduced and the test results are presented