Hydropower Insight

Hydropower Insight is an international three day training event providing knowledge and
understanding of run-of-river hydropower schemes from 1kW to 10mW in size. The event will be
highly interactive and will cover all aspects of design and development of Small Hydropower
Schemes. It will be particularly useful to people seeking a broad understanding of the issues
around the creation of hydropower schemes, including; environmental and planning specialists,
students of renewable energy, investors, manufacturers and suppliers of hydropower equipment
and services, government officials and community organisations.

Programme

Day 1

• Introduction to Hydropower – Types and Classes of Schemes
• Scheme Features – Intake, Penstock, Powerhouse and Tailrace
• Hydropower Elements – Hydrology, Flow Rate, Head, Power and Energy (AAEP)
• Types of Turbine – Pelton, Turgo, Francis, Kaplan, Crossflow and Archimedes screw
• Practical Design
• Scheme Construction – Case Studies

Day 2

Technical Study Tour – visiting 5 working schemes

• Archimedes Screw
• Pelto
• Turgo
• Francis
• Kaplan

Day 3

• Electrical Features – Generators, Controls, Transformers & Grid
• Consents – Water Abstraction & Planning: requirements and processes
• Design Exercises – Scheme Layout, Turbine Selection & Environmental
  Considerations
• Global Perspective – UNIDO World SHP Development Report 2019
• Technological Innovation
• Business Issues – Costs, Income & Risks

Profiles

Prof. David Williams CEng. FIMechE
David Williams has been involved in the hydropower sector for 42 years. Trained as a
mechanical engineer, he worked for Gilkes from Student Apprentice to Manager of the
Hydropower Department. He later moved into export promotion setting up and managing a
regional office for South Asia and South East Asia, based in Malaysia.
From 2000 he was seconded to UKTI (UK Government trade support department) as
Hydropower Export Promoter. He then moved to the British Hydropower Association as its
Chief Executive until the end of 2014.
David is a Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh where he hosts an annual tenweek
inter-disciplinary group course on the design of a hydro scheme as part of the University’s Masters
Degree in Sustainable Energy and their Honours Degree course in Mechanical Engineering.

Gordon Black
Gordon Black and his business partner Nick Forrest founded babyHydro in 2008. The
business is focused exclusively on designing and developing run-of-river hydropower
schemes for landowners and communities. It has installed schemes from 10kW to 500kW
across Scotland.
Prior to this Gordon spent 27 years working with British Telecom, mainly in London and
Cambridge, in a variety of roles including marketing, sales, product management and bid
management. His final role, before returning to Scotland, was in the BT Laboratories
where he was Business Development Manager for the company’s corporate incubator, BT
Brightstar. He has an Honours Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of
Strathclyde and a MBA in Strategic Marketing.

David and Gordon have been delivering hydropower training events together since April 2013,
including:
• 12 courses (each lasting two days) for the British Hydropower Association – held at various
locations around the UK
• 3 bespoke courses (each lasting one day) – clients; a private energy consultancy firm, Local
Energy Scotland, and GE Renewable Energy (Europe)
• Single day workshops (where delegates learn the principles of designing a scheme, and then
work in teams to establish the practical parameters of a valid site) in conjunction with major
hydropower conferences and exhibitions organised by Aqua-Media and delivered through
their Hydropower & Dams events:
• ASIA 2016: Water Resources and Hydropower Development, March 2016, Vientiane, Lao PDR
• HYDRO 2016: October 2016, Montreux, Switzerland
• AFRICA 2017, Water Storage and Hydropower Development, March 2017, Marrakech, Morocco
• HYDRO 2017, October 2017, Seville, Spain
• ASIA 2018, Water Resources and Renewable Energy Development, March 2018, Danang,
Vietnam
• HYDRO 2018, October 2018, Gdansk, Poland
• AFRICA 2019, Water Storage and Hydropower Development for Africa, April 2019, Windhoek,
Namibia
• HYDRO 2019, October 2019, Porto, Portugal

Duration: 3 Days

Cost:£720 + VAT

Hydropower Insight Training Inverness, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth and onsite courses throughout the UK.