Microhydro by Scott Davis

Scott L. Davis dropped out of graduate school in 1976 to work on, among other things, a village scale hydroelectric project in a remote area west of Lillooet BC. In the years that followed, he used, designed, constructed, installed, repaired and generally fooled around with the many microhydro systems that sprang up in the area. In 1995, he and his wife and partner, Bonnie Mae Newsmall, founded Yalakom Appropriate Technology, an award winning renewable energy project development company. Their projects were featured as case studies by the Canadian Renewable Energy Guide, in RETSCREEN -- Canada's renewable energy software and in Microhydropower Systems: A Buyers' Guide and the Commercial Solar Water Heating Buyers' Guide, published by Natural Resources Canada. It soon became clear that the significant barriers to renewable energy investment in BC and Canada could best be surmounted by a nonprofit organization. To that end, in 2000, Scotty and Bonnie Mae founded Friends of Renewable Energy BC, which continues to find market solutions for our environmental problems. FOREBC's projects have included a market study of solar pool heating,a self-directed tour of existing renewable energy technology in Victoria, a renewable energy lecture series and a very successful microhydro workshop. More projects are planned, including the Streamworks project described in Chapter 49 of his new book, Serious Microhydro: Water Power Solutions from the Experts. Today, Scotty enjoys working with Friends of Renewable Energy BC and life, especially the gardening, in Victoria BC.