Kris Harbour lives with his partner on an 18 acre off-grid smallholding in rural south Wales.
As well as solar PV his main source of electricity is his self-built micro hydropower system.
The flow in the stream is only sufficient for six months over autumn and winter. This fits well with his solar PV which will be producing less electricity over the winter.
In this video Kris is switching on his micro hydro system for the winter season.
He is also replacing the old secondhand forklift batteries that have provided the battery storage capacity for the past few years. Kris plans to upgrade to lithium batteries soon, but as the changeover was needed urgently due to the failure of some of the existing batteries, he has had to go with another set of lead acid forklift batteries for now.
The micro hydro system and the 24V battery bank will be Kris’s main source of power for the next 6 months.