I was reading about a hydro turbine http://www.absak.com/pdf/LH1000.pdf that can produce up to 1kW of electricity and it says that, that is enough to power an average household. Now, I was reading something else that that said the average household uses approx. 10,000 kWh a year. But I don't get it. So if anyone knows about electricity could you please explain this a bit better?




Also, say if you bought a piece of land with a lake or some other water source on it does the government have any say regarding that water?

Power (kW) times duration (hours) equals energy (kWh). 1 kW * 24 hours * 365 days = 8760 kWh.

Seems a bit much, though. Average yearly electricity consumption per household is about 3400 kWh here in the Netherlands.

I've read that here in the USA the state must buy up any overage of electricity from any production source such as windmills .

Tasmania is very green and very femonazi and very socialist. Dark green, puce fem, bright red socialists. It is a sort of antipodean cross between Sweden and Khazakstan, with beaches and lots of sunshine.

Here we have Hydro electricity - lakes and dams everywhere -with one modestly sized oil burning generator for back up. There is no gas or coal, and wood burning for heating - a traditional heat source here - is discouraged with a fist. So we rely on electricity, from the State of course, with the provider disguised as a 'privatised' but nonetheless wholly State owned, entity.

So Hydro -The State - has the water and Aurora - the State - has the electricity the water produces.

The State own ALL the water. Every damned drop. They'd pipe it from your penis if they could. If a farmer has a pond in a field (we call them dams here for some odd reason) he has to have a licence and pay for the amount that is stored. (It is stolen 'run-off', otherwise!!!).

In our green milieu we are encouraged (or get thumped) to have self-generated electricity, but that competes with Aurora - the State. So they have a complex buy-back scheme which takes with one hand and gives a little back with the other.. You have to buy a seperate meter with your own money (which Aurora generously doesn't charge you for, but you do have to pay a licence fee) and meet their safety requirements. If your generator (roof-top, photvoltaic, deisel or small boys running in a friggin' great mouse-wheel), produces less than 3Kws the enery is credited at the 'net metering energy import rate' (an animal that has more spots than you can shake a stick at and means whatever Aurora says it means), and if more than 3Kws then they pay a 'wholesale purchacing' cost, which they determine. But, first you have to pay your bills at the 'retail cost' that they charge, which is a lot more. (I guess someone has to pay for all the cardboard and cellophane wrapping and the advertising)

So, say you produced half of your own electricity. You pay for all of it at the retail price set by Aurora (say 10*) and then they pay you for the half that you have produced at a much lower rate (say 2*). If you produced ALL your own, you still end up paying for the privilege.

We built a cable to the North Island so we could pump expensive, 'premium green' electricity to the mainlanders. They said there was a 'demand' for 'clean' electricity. Hah! They have plenty of yucky, dirty stuff from coal-fired power stations and actually sell us more then we sell them. So now our clean, green, watery stuff is polluted.

They also have a drought so we are planning to sell them our water and go short ourselves! We will probably lose on that too.

Friggin' socialists.

PS.

We also have wind generators. Friggin' great big things on the northwest coast. The electricity produced there is so expensive that even Halliburton can't afford it. The folk living within screech-distance certainly can't.

The huge 'wind-farm' produces power when the wind is light and variable but they feather the props when the wind blows hard. It always blows hard up there. It's in the roaring friggin' forties for Gordon's sake.