Hydropower
One of the remarkable features of the Colome Winery Hotel is the sophisticated hydroelectric generating plant, as they have no connection to the grid. The water is captured from a snowmelt stream about 200m above the turbine house, and fed by a pressure pipe to the turbines below, with a capacity of 200Kw. The discharge water from the turbines is stored in an irrigation reservoir which provides irrigation water for the vineyards and water for the hotel and the winery.
The stream which provides all the power and irrigation water for Colomé
A small dam captures the water for the power station and feeds it to a compensation reservoir a few meters below.
From there the water is fed by a pressure pipe to the turbine house,
with a head of about 200m. The design has to take into account the
flash floods
when there are storms in the mountains above.
The elastomer lined irrigation reservoir which provides water for the
vineyards, the hotel and the winery.