Micro hydro to power my Teslas, what infrastructure do I need?

[daytonatom]

I've got an opportunity to install an Archimedean screw micro hydro scheme for power generation on a river running alongside my business and was planning on using the energy generated to power my MX and the 3s (when they arrive). I've been told that the turbine will generate 5kW peak power, delivering 30MWh per year. I plan to use all the energy myself and feed none back to the grid (electricity utility only pays me 8c/kWh, whereas 1kWh is worth 5km range and at local diesel rates that's worth about 50c).

I imagine my setup will be as follows... turbine feeds an inverter that then pipes energy to a battery pack. Can I then feed this DC directly to the vehicle's batteries in the same way that the Supercharger does or would I have to go about rectifying and feeding it as AC a la the HPWC?

 

[mblakele]

The AC HPWC route will be the easiest to implement today, I think. Direct DC would be more efficient, but I don't think you can simulate a supercharger with off-the-shelf parts. Maybe emulating chademo would be easier?

 

[Johan]

Very cool project! Emulating DC would be very cool, but using Chademo for this would need something like the "Open-CHADEMO" project to happen which isn't likely yet... But in quite a short period a bigger and bigger percentage of their customers who are price sensitive will have their own DC source locally: solar on the roof.

 

[int32_t]

On the other hand your cars won't be plugged in 100% of the time, and they'll get full eventually. (And 5 kW isn't that fast, either -- 10-15 ish km/h charge rate.) I'd do a grid-tie so you are guaranteed at least $0.08 per kWh back, and up to $0.50 when you're charging. Bonus: you get to charge quickly with an HPWC as well.