Microhydro Designer (MHD) is an application for the complete end-to-end design of microhydro electricity generation systems. z02 designed this RIA application and did all development using a Open Laszlo front end and ColdFusion, mySQL, mapServer backend.

MHD was conceived by Stewart Craine of Barefoot Power and received development funding by Natural Resources Canada.

Stewart Craine and Ian Scrivener of z02 worked very closely to design this next generation Renewable Energy (RE) system design. While there are a few similar RE design applications available globally, such as the well respected RetScreen application, few if any offer a sub 2Mb download and the power of real time mapping and visualisation.

The MHD application is in effect a module framework for creating complex screen based input of variables, real-time complex engineering calculations, real-time chart and map visualisation.

Where a Content Management System (CMS) separates a web site into CMS application & content... MHD successfully separates the problem into 4 discreet areas of concern; (1) application,(2) formulas and parameters, (3) screen layout (4) Mapping elements. In this way the work of entering complex engineering formulas can be carried out by an engineer with the required expertise, while screen layout designed using an HTML style markup language.

MHD will continue to be developed as engineering formulas are added, screens are created etc.