this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2024
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Okay, hear me out, I was just looking at pictures of beavers and thought to myself, what if someone used a beaver dam for hydropower? I mean my first thought is of course that wouldn't work...unless? I mean I know nothing about dam construction or hydropower, so I can't actually disprove this to myself. Why wouldn't this work? Or could it?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The power available from a hydropower dam is P = 9.81๐‘žโ„Ž๐œ‚ where P is the power in kilowatts, q is the flow rate in cubic meters per second, h is the head height in meters, and ฮท is the efficiency factor. This paper claims that beaver dams have a head height from 0.3m-5m with most below 1.5m and a width up to 46m but usually 10m or less and mentions that beaver dams can withstand a flow rate of 1.34m^3/s per meter width for a dam with a height of 1.4m. So if we estimate a 75% efficiency and go with 1.34m^3/s per meter width, 10m width and 1.4m head that gives us:

P = 9.81 * 13.4 m^3/s * 1.4m * 0.75

for a power of 138kW.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

that's a lot less power i'm assuming?

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Less than what? For comparison, the average Amerikkkan home uses about 1.2kW.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

I did not fully absorb your comment but I reread it and understand it now

[โ€“] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

Can you pet and or smooch the beaver for a job well done?

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

beavers dam up ravines, i dont think there'd be much potential energy there to capture.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I don't know what this means

edit: are you saying hydropower dams need to be built on a waterfall or something?

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Not necessarily that it needs to be on a waterfall or anything like that since usually the thing to do is make an artificial lake so the dam itself acts as the waterfall. What I mean is the volume of water is probably too low to be worth doing.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Beaver dams are where beavers keep their food and children, where would you put the turbines?

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

Beavers live in the lodge not the dam but still I don't think a beaver dam is gonna hold up a big ass turbine

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I have no idea how beaver dams work, this was pretty much just a shower thought. I assume though the beavers are living in dry areas and the turbines would go in the water where the beavers are not.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Not sure if this is what you're talking about, but small-scale hydropower is definitely a thing and can be done fairly cheaply: https://youtu.be/1KyL1-0A0Gw

You're not going to generate enough electricity from a small damn to provide power to anything for more than a very small group of people though.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

If society collapses and we haven't achieved communism I guess my plan is going out to the forest and living among the beavers

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Usually beaver dams are designed to disperse water more broadly into a landscape, turning a stream into a wetland. Humans often do the opposite, digging a trench to turn a marsh or swamp into a stream, and then sometimes damming that stream into a lake or reservoir.