Plumbing Portland turned into a mini-hydro

In most large and medium cities in any country have a centralized water supply system. Pipe large enough diameter, is passed through a huge amount of water used by residents. The energy of the water flow is not used, and it needs to be fixed - so say the representatives of the American company Lucid Energy . This company has proposed to the authorities of the city of Portland, Oregon, a project to turn the water supply in the electric power generator. The project was named LucidPipe Power System.

Implementation of the project not too difficult : according to plan, it is necessary to replace some parts of the pipe sections with mini-generators who work under the influence of water. On this section of the pipe contains four 107-cm Trubina. Preliminary calculations show that the turbine does not slow down the flow of water, so that problems with reduced capacity of the pipeline will not occur.



It is understood that the power of such a mini-hydro, plot with four turbines of 200 kW. The total capacity of "pipeline power" Portland after installing all the test sites will be 1,100 megawatt-hours of energy per year, which is enough to supply about 150 households. It's not much, but the system can be scaled. if necessary. According to the project, the first 20 years of the profits earned on the sale of "water energy" will go to the investment company, in part - to the municipality. After 20 years, the municipality receives the right to buy the system.

Currently, a similar system operates in Riverside, United States, but the project in Portland, much larger village, promises to show interesting results.

Source: geektimes.ru/post/246104/