Design of the Pump / Turbine Model

Design of the Pump / Turbine Model

What is great about the pump / turbine the ALPHEUS project is developing? The counter-rotating pump-turbine under development in ALPHEUS is of axial type, which is more suitable for low-head applications. It has no guide vanes, but instead there are two counter-rotating runners that interact to give the best possible conditions at all time. In […]

What Hazard Does the ALPHEUS Project Face?

What Hazard Does the ALPHEUS Project Face?

The Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour is represented by the E2S chair HPC-Waves and is involved in the ALPHEUS effort trough WP5. The chair HPC-Waves (High Performance Computing of Waves) is part of the college of engineering at UPPA’s Anglet campus in SW France. The chair is lead by Volker Roeber, a […]

The ALPHEUS project has opened the participation in the stakeholder questionnaire for any prospect interested in the low-head pumped hydro storage technology

Have you ever thought about how else to store the electric energy produced by thousands of offshore wind energy parks globally? The best energy storages today are pumped-hydro storage systems; hence the question whether this technology can be adopted to lower heads, and the ALPHEUS EU-project is currently finding out. Better energy storage technology is […]

What is the Environmental Impact of the ALPHEUS Project?

What is the Environmental Impact of the ALPHEUS Project?

Hydropower applications pose a series of environmental impacts on ecologically sensitive areas, and for this reason require careful site planning. The study of environmental aspects (siting and land use) is paramount in ALPHEUS and ALPHEUS-like projects. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) imposes the monitoring and the assessment of European marine waters quality against 11 […]

Why Does the Electricity Grid Need ALPHEUS?

Why Does the Electricity Grid Need ALPHEUS?

The pan-European power grid is experiencing a rapid upheaval in the nature of its energy supply side. An ever-increasing penetration of Variable renewable energy (VRE), such as wind and solar energy, pose new challenges regarding the grid stability and security of supply. Without further measures, the fluctuating and non-dispatchable nature of these VRE would turn […]

Introduction to the ALPHEUS Project

Introduction to the ALPHEUS Project

European goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions require the increase of renewable energies used in the electric grid. Nowadays the most developed renewable energy technologies are wind, solar and hydraulic power stations. Wind and solar energy capacity has been rapidly increasing in the last years. However, the natural unpredictability of these energy sources calls for […]

New Publication: Drivetrain Architectures for a Mechanically Decoupled Contra-Rotating Reversible Pump-Turbine

With the rise of renewable energy production in the pan-European grid, the need for flexible energy storage is experiencing a rapid increase. Pumped hydropower storage has proven viability due to its long lifespan and cost-effectiveness. The ALPHEUS project will implement pumped hydropower storage for flat topographies to augment grid stability in adjacent regions. To ensure […]

The Design of the Counter Rotating RPT has been created

The current mechanical design of the counter rotating RPT was created using the CAD software PTC Creo Parametric. This design will be tested in the experiment and later validated in the CFD. With the help of two bellows couplings, a possible misalignment between the motor shaft and the drive shaft can be compensated. The torque […]

RDP Research Prototype Running in a Pump Mode

The prototype was built at Chalmers University of Technology by Petter Miltén under the supervision of Prof. Valery Chernoray. Video courtesy to Petter Miltén. Positive displacement reversible pump-turbine research model running in a pump mode. This model is being used to validate Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) being undertaken by Pal-Tore Storli and Luiz Henrique Accorsi Gans at the […]