Portland’s New Pipes Harvest Power From Drinking Water

[ashling]

http://wearechange.org/portlands-new-pipes-harvest-power-drinking-water/

In Portland, one of the city’s main pipelines now uses Lucid’s pipes to make power that’s sent into the grid. Though the system can’t generate enough energy for an entire city, the pipes can power individual buildings like a school or library, or help offset a city’s total energy bill. Unlike wind or solar power, the system can generate electricity at any time of day, regardless of weather, since the pipes always have water flowing through them.

The pipes can’t generate power in every location; they only work in places where water is naturally flowing downward with gravity (if water is being pumped, the system would waste energy). But they have another feature that can be used anywhere: The pipes have sensors that can monitor water, something that utilities couldn’t do in the past.

“We made electrical infrastructure really smart over the last 20 to 25 years, but the same hasn’t happened in water,” Semler says. He points to the example of a pipe that burst near UCLA last year, wasting a staggering 20 million gallons of water in the middle of California’s crippling drought.


Sensors in the pipe can also monitor water quality, making sure it’s safe to drink.
The company hopes to work with cities to install new systems as old pipes wear out. They’re also hoping to expand to the developing world. “It’s a great source of remote power,” says Semler. “So in places outside

[Sherman A1]

1. Superb!

and this type of thing is long overdue.

[Hissyspit]

2. New, improved infrastructure! What a novel idea.

Sounds like socialism to me!!! Derrp!11

[ashling]

3. I wonder if there is anything

available for personal use.

A good many systems are gravity fed from tanks on a hill or from water towers. It may take energy to raise the water to tower height, but why not recover some of that energy on the way down.

Ours community water system is from wells on a higher point. The system folks have told me that the water pressure is 61 psi by the time it gets to me. It would be great if I could install something on my side of the meter.