Water Power

http://www.reuk.co.uk/Rainbow-Power-300W-Hydro-Generator.htm     Im very envious of your river and if I had one I'd be doing this just for the fun of it.. Here is a link to a fairly serious bit of kit....  I expect you know that it is flow and height that makes the power so you need to take a large pipe from a higher dam and mount the turbine as low down the line as possible.  £1,500 plus fitting and wiring strikes me as quite a pricey way of getting 300 watts though. There's lots of info in old newsletters on the heatingitaly web site about the various alternatives, in particular some chat about oversize solar arrays set with a winter bias. I mention this because a similar investment will produce several kilowatts of power over a useful part of the year with a broad enough production profile to overlap nicely with wood power when winter comes. Going back to the water power - if you go DIY water turbine on You-tube you get a few interesting projects where car alternators are hooked up to simple turbines.

Navitron sell them: http://www.navitron.org.uk/category.php?catID=70 If you google "micro-hydro" you will find loads of information. If you have a reasonable head/flow you can heat & light your house with the generated electricity. If you really do it right you can get an (approved) inverter, hook up to the grid, & it can pay your mortgage too! If you want to do it on the cheap then google "using a pump as a generator"! Pip pip

the problem is definitely not buying equipment it's all out there on the market.The question is as to whether you will be allowed to put in a turbine.These things are VERY controlled.Iwould suggest that the first thing to do is to go to the comune to find out the first response on the matter,as other authorities could also later be involved.At some point you would also be required to come up with  a very detailed engineers report on the waters involved the size of the necessary deviation,the equipment to be used, water volumes involved,environmental impact etc etc.Before necessarily having obtained any form of permission which could depend exactly on the above.

We own a water mill on a fast flowing river and have thought about installing a turbine but, as Sebastiano says, anything related to the river is very heavily controlled. I don't think I have the energy ....

If it's any help have a look at Gilkesenergy site, they have supplied the world with hydro-electric equipment from 5kw up for donkeys years from their factory in Kendal UK.