Home / Uses / Micro-hydro and hydrogen for a backcountry lodge

Storing a stream's power for the nights the lodge is full

Walk-in and fly-in lodges often sit beside running water. Micro-hydro is a natural fit, but flow drops in dry spells. This page looks at hydrogen as the store between the two.

Steady water, uneven demand

A micro-hydro turbine on a lodge stream produces power around the clock, but the lodge does not use it evenly. Midweek with few guests, most of it goes to a dump load. On a full weekend the kitchen, hot water, drying room and lights want more than the turbine gives. Turning the midweek surplus into hydrogen lets the lodge bank that water power for the busy nights.

What it would keep running

Lodge kitchen fridges and cooking
Drying room heaters
Hot water for guest showers
Lighting through the lodge
Radio and satellite comms

Weeks of storage, not hours

A battery bank smooths a day. Hydrogen stored at 30 bar or less keeps for weeks without losing charge, so it can carry a lodge through a dry spell when the stream is low, or a busy run of fully booked nights. The fuel cell's water goes back into the loop, and the electrolyser uses filtered, de-ionised water, which a stream-fed lodge has in quantity.

Everything is flown or walked in at a remote lodge, so not needing diesel deliveries is a real saving in helicopter loads and in risk to the waterway. A spilled drum of diesel beside a trout stream is a problem no lodge wants to explain to guests, neighbours or the regional council.

How it works →

The H2OME loop: an electrolyser splits water into hydrogen, the hydrogen is stored in a tank for weeks, a fuel cell turns it into electricity for your home, and the water returns to the loop.

Sizing it honestly

Round trip is 30% or less, so every unit banked as hydrogen returns less than a third. That is fine when the stream's surplus would otherwise be wasted, but it means the turbine has to be big enough to cover the losses. A 15 kW output covers a lodge kitchen, drying room, lights and hot water in rotation. The pilot would size storage to the stream's real flow.

Questions

Does micro-hydro need hydrogen at all?

Not always. If flow is steady and demand is even, a turbine and a modest battery may be enough. Hydrogen makes sense when there is real surplus to bank and real gaps to fill, such as dry spells or weekend peaks.

Can it be flown in by helicopter?

Remote installation logistics would be worked out for each pilot site. It is designed as a compact system, but the weight and size of the components would need planning with the lodge.

What happens to the water it uses?

The electrolyser uses about 9 litres per kilogram of hydrogen, and the fuel cell produces water as its by-product, which goes back into the loop. Little is consumed overall, and the intake is filtered and de-ionised first.

Elsewhere

Every use →

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