A re-assessment of small hydro development in Nova Scotia

Abstract

Most of the major rivers in Nova Scotia have now been developed for hydro power. However a large number of small sites still remain undeveloped mainly due to the high cost associated with building small hydro plants designed to the same criteria as used for large scale hydro projects. A re-assessment of the design criteria is required in order to reduce the cost of small hydro. This paper includes a review of such design criteria a description of methods to quickly evaluate power potential and concludes with a brief description of a 0.5 MW hydro plant in Ontario.