The proposed utility model belongs to the energy sector that uses natural, environmentally friendly, renewable energy sources and can be used to generate electricity in places where lands are not suitable for agriculture, for example in Chernobyl zone and other places where there is a need for autonomous electricity generators. It can be used as a peak power plant and, in the future, as the alternative for nuclear power plants.
The new technical solution transfers the wind energy directly to the pump that is connected to the wind engine. Wind energy is used to lift water from the lower to the higher reservoir. Unlike the existing wind turbines, the wind engine connected to the water pump for lifting water can absorb energy of wind gusts and works in the whole range of wind speeds, which considerably increases the efficiency of energy conversion from wind energy into mechanical work of the pump. This feature is based on the fact that the power created by the wind engine is proportional to the cube of the wind speed and the same law applies to the water pump, which is basically an inverted water engine. The difference is only in the densities of the environments in which the engines operate.
In Ukraine there is a real opportunity to create the proposed wind-hydro-helioelectric generators using the upper and lower reservoirs of the existing hydroelectric power plants. According to the calculations of the authors, the proposed wind-hydro-helioelectric generator applied to three of the existing operational hydroelectric power plants (Kyivska, Tashlytska, and Dnistrovska) can be the alternative to building the two new energy blocks to Khmelnitskaya Nuclear Power Plant, which has a planned budget of 4.5 billion US dollars or 2250 dollars per kilowatt (http://economics.lb.ua/state/2012/07/26/162748_dostroyka_energoblokov_ha...).
The capacity of the three hydroelectric power plants is 2113,5 MWT. There is an opportunity to create one wind-hydro-helioelectric generator with the cost of generated capacity approximately 1000 US dollars per one kilowatt (http://wind.spravka.ua/products/3.html).
It is especially appealing to create the proposed generators in Chernobyl zone, which for many years will remain an exclusion zone. Creating the upper and lower reservoirs there will greatly reduce the erosion of soils that causes the spread of radionuclides.
The first stage of the realization of this project must be a creation of a portable industrial-research pilot model with small capacity, for example 10 KWT, using the upper and lower reservoirs of any hydroelectric power plant, in particular Kyivska hydroelectric plant, which has the maximum difference of levels of 74 meters. The price of such project, including the salaries of researchers, is around 80,000 US dollars. After the thorough testing of the industrial-research model of the wind-hydro-helioelectric generator, it is possible to start serial production of for all hydroelectric power plants using the domestic production facilities in Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Kharkov, and others, which will considerably load up these businesses and create much needed in Ukraine jobs. As a version of the first stage of this project, authors are already building the similar reservoirs with their own funds for a power plant of lesser capacity in village Yatzuki in Kyiv region, where the difference between levels is 35 meters. The lower reservoir with the area of 0.12 hectares and depth of 3 meters (3,600 cubic meters), wind turbine with a vertical axis, water pump and a solar panel are already in place. The plan is to start the generator in summer of 2015.
By publicizing this information authors are inviting potential stakeholders to take part in the implementation of the proposed technical solutions.
