Ringmo

This project marked New Energy’s first operational field deployment to a remote community. The system has been running continuously for over 2 years without maintenance intervention until the late summer of 2016. It continues to operate today. Ringmo, Nepal, is a village located high in the Himalayas in the Dolpa region of northern Nepal. There are no roads leading to the village. Access from the nearest motorized transportation to the village is by way of a multi-day hike through the mountains. All materials must be carried in by hand, or on the backs of pack animals. The 5 kW system installed in Ringmo is the first of a new generation of New Energy hydrokinetic power generation equipment, branded EnviroGen, has no gearbox, and uses a purpose- built low speed generator. This system demonstrates power service delivery and community capacity building in a very remote part of Nepal. Major sponsors and partners in the project included Advantage Products Inc. Himalaya Currents, World Wildlife Fund, and US Synthetic.

The installation required the construction of a gabion duct in order to both concentrate the fast-moving river flow and support the turbine. The New Energy turbine is the key building block to power Ringmo’s nascent micro economy. The system powers a community of 40 homes, an army base, and a monastery.

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Project Manager

New Energy Corporation

Additional Information

Project Website

Project Status Is the project actively being planned or is deployed in the water (active)? Or was the project canceled or completed (inactive)?

Inactive

Project Life Cycle Project Progress through life cycle:<ul> <li>Planned: Project has identified a deployment location and is preparing for deployment</li> <li>Operational: Project is deployed in the water and is active</li> <li>Completed: Project was previously deployed in the water</li> <li>Decommissioned: Installation has been fully removed in accordance with regulations</li> <li>Canceled: Project was canceled before being deployed in the water</li></ul>

Completed

Max Rated Power Capacity The maximum amount of electricity that can be produced by project, based on available resources and device nameplate capacity.

0.005 MW

Operational Start Year

May 2014

Project Start Year

2013

Energy Resource

Riverine

Project Scale

Full-scale

Number of Devices

1

Grid Connectivity

Not Grid Connected

Waterbody

Suligad River

Site Characteristics Geographic characterization for the project location:<ul> <li>Open Ocean: Main body of ocean, not enclosed or partially enclosed by land</li> <li>Coastal: Open water near the coast, spanning between land and shelf boundary</li> <li>Enclosed Bay: water that is partially surrounded by land, with a mouth open to larger water</li> <li>Constricted Channel: A channel where water flows quickly due to narrowing by the land</li> <li>River: Water flowing from land towards a larger body of water</li></ul>

River

Country

Nepal

Last Modified

14 August 2025

This Project has the following MRE Devices

Citation Formats

“Ringmo.” Marine Energy Projects Database: Projects, PRIMRE, United States Department of Energy, https:https://openei.org/wiki/PRIMRE/Databases/Projects_Database/Projects/Ringmo. Accessed <day> <monthRoman> <year>.

Marine Energy Projects Database: Projects. <year>. "Ringmo." Accessed <monthRoman> <day>, <year>. https:https://openei.org/wiki/PRIMRE/Databases/Projects_Database/Projects/Ringmo.

PRIMRE/Databases/Projects Database/Projects/Ringmo

Ringmo

This Project has the following MRE Devices

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