Matters Concerned with Development of Autonomous Cogeneration Energy Complexes on the Basis of Microhydropower Plants

In connection with the depletion of the world reserves of fuel resources and growing environmental safety requirements for power-generating facilities, the article presents a review analysis of the present state of conventional power supply systems in Russia and in the European Union countries (for the latter, the Czech Republic is taken as an example). We consider promising lines of research in the fields of energy conservation and development of efficient and environmentally clean energy sources and specific features of their process circuit solutions and technical embodiment as well as solutions necessary for putting new technologies into use in the real energy sector. In the conventional power industry, facilities implemented according to the principle of combined generation of electricity and heat—so-called cogeneration—have received wide use. Such facilities can be constructed not only on the basis of fuel engine units (gas turbines, diesel–generators, etc.) but also using renewable energy sources. It is pointed out that, with the modern scientific-technical level, the line involving the use—within combined power supply systems—of power-generating facilities having minimal negative impact on the environment has been developed to an insufficient extent. The article considers the modern state of hydraulic power engineering for estimating the possibility of using hydropower resources for development of investigations in this field. Prerequisites for constructing combined, first of all, autonomous energy sources of the micro power capacity class (up to 100 kW), in particular, a cogeneration power complex on the basis of a microhydropower plant, are considered. The results from design-theoretical and experimental investigations into the cogeneration complex structural components are outlined; a basic circuit solution for such energy source aimed at independently supplying electricity and heat for a consumer is shown, and promising ways for further improving the proposed technical solution and making it more efficient are pointed out.