Analysis Study of Squirrel Cage Vertical Axis Turbine Darrieus Model for Microhydro Mini Power Plan in Small Area

Have been discussed about the implementation of squirrel cage darrieus model of vertical axis turbine to handle electricity demand. Indonesian’s river has low stream flow about 0.7 to 2.5 m/s that suitable for its characteristic to produce electricity. In this paper, the method for solving the problem is using secondary data, literature study, and simple modeling the turbine blade using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation. The turbine model is using passive pitch with rotor radius is 35 cm. When this model installed, it can produce power electricity until 70 to 80% theoretically. In conclusion, this type of turbine can produce power of electricity until 6.15 kW is equal with 10 houses electrical demand in small area and its initial cost is cheaper than micro hydro installation just Rp1.5 million/kWh.