Assessment of Hydrokinetic Potential in the Umbeluzi Basin, Mozambique
Abstract
Hydrokinetic turbines can play a pivotal role in providing electricity access to remote areas in Mozambique, as stand-alone isolated mini-grids. However, the suitable sites for application of Hydrokinetic Turbines throughout the country are not known, hence the need for this research.The study was done to evaluate electricity generation based on hydrokinetic turbines in the Umbeluzi basin. For this purpose, the following methods has been applied: 1) Frequency analysis using historical data of river stream velocity, to generate velocity duration curves (VDC) characterized the rivers flow; 2) comparison of stream flow velocity to the design velocity of the hydrokinetic turbine and comparison of the rotor diameter of hydrokinetic turbine to the depth of the river, to evaluate the feasibility for installation in the basin. The results show that low flow velocities characterize the Umbeluzi River, hence no considerable potential sites for installations of hydrokinetic turbine. However, 444 W can be extracted in station 638 using dual axial turbine (Under Water Electric kit).