Pelton
The high-head specialist
An impulse turbine for heads of 50–1 000 m. Instead of pressure acting on submerged blades, needle-controlled jets fire water at bucket-shaped cups — the machine of choice where water falls far but flows little.
- Head
- 50 – 1 000 m
- Flow
- 0.1 – 10 m³/s
- Output
- up to 30 MW
- Runner
- Ø 500 – 2 500 mm
How it works
At 1 000 m of head, water leaves the nozzle at roughly 140 m/s — about 500 km/h. The double-cup buckets split each jet in two and throw it back almost 180°, transferring nearly all of its kinetic energy to the wheel.
Configurations
Horizontal machines carry up to three jets; vertical machines up to six, for the highest outputs at a given head.
Pelton Horizontal
- Head
- 50 – 1 000 m
- Flow
- 0.1 – 6 m³/s
- Output
- up to 30 MW
- Jets
- 1 – 3
- Drive
- Direct
Pelton Vertical
- Head
- 50 – 1 000 m
- Flow
- up to 10 m³/s
- Output
- up to 30 MW
- Jets
- 3 – 6
- Drive
- Direct
Applications
- High mountain penstocks
- Glacier- and snow-fed streams
- Drinking-water pressure recovery
- Sites with strongly seasonal flow
Key facts
- Heads up to 1 000 m — jets near 500 km/h
- 1–6 jets, each with its own spear valve
- Runner spins in air: no cavitation on buckets
- Reference: 11.3 MW at 165 m head in Canada
Selected references
View all →Upper Clowhom HPP
Canada
1 × Pelton Vertical
Armamar HPP
Portugal
1 × Pelton Horizontal
Other machines
Is this the right machine for your site?
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