Portland Just Installed Water Pipes That Generate Electricity!

[KamaAina]

http://themindunleashed.org/2015/02/portland-just-installed-water-pipes-generate-electricity.html

Lucid Energy, a Portland-based energy company, has come up with a brilliant idea to harness electricity from the water that flows through a city’s pipes. Small turbines are installed into the pipes which send the energy collected from the flowing water into a power generator.

“It’s pretty rare to find a new source of energy where there’s no environmental impact. But this is inside a pipe, so no fish or endangered species are impacted. That’s what’s exciting,” Gregg Semler, CEO of Lucid Energy, said in a statement.

“We have a project in Riverside, California, where they’re using it to power streetlights at night. During the day, when electricity prices are high, they can use it to offset some of their operating costs,” Semler says.

Lucid’s new power-generating pipes have recently been installed in Portland, where they are powering many different public spaces throughout the city. This is even more efficient than many other renewable forms of energy because these pipes can harness electricity 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, in any weather.

[MineralMan]

1. Interesting concept.

As long as it doesn't reduce water flow in a significant way, why not take advantage of the flowing water? I like it.

[world wide wally]

2. Yes, we can...

if we will only spend more than a third world country on research and development of ideas like this.

[tech3149]

5. If we diverted the subsidies to fossile fuels to renewable energy

we could make the transition within a decade. Why continue to support an industry that is not just dying but dragging us down with it? I could support a slow transition as long as they couldn't invest more in PR than a positive transition.

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. Cool idea - provided the water flows from the source by gravity only. n/t

[ChisolmTrailDem]

4. Such a simple, yet brilliant idea! nt

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Link to article with photos....

http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2015/01/portland_company_that_built_ci.html

[Yo_Mama]

11. There appears to be something odd about this, if the article is right

Financially, it doesn't add up. It says that the investors paid for the pipe and installation of 1.7 million, and Portland will buy the power generated at the cost of approximately 2 million over twenty years.

That means the investors lose money on the deal.

Somewhere, somebody is getting a government subsidy to pay for this.

[jeff47]

7. Assuming the water isn't pumped, that's pretty clever. (nt)

[gratuitous]

8. Even if it is pumped

If the water is pumped, it probably needs to be. Recovering some of that energy expended for pumping the water is still a good idea, in my opinion.

[IDemo]

9. Still, not "a new source of energy" as the article states

It's a bit like putting a small windmill on the roof of your car to power the stereo system.

[Yo_Mama]

10. It raises the cost of pumping it.

You have to use resistance to produce the electricity from running water.

And the laws of thermodynamics imply that the increased energy expenditure for pumping would have to be more than the net energy gain from the in-pipe turbines.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. The articles don't explain well; it's about using excess pressure when the system has it

The total power produced is linked to flow of water and the
excess head pressure, or the vertical distance through which
the water has fallen. The quantity of the water flowing per
second, or the flow rate, and the excess head pressure is
computed in order to determine the amount of available
energy that can be captured.
...
Pressure Reducing Valve (PRV) - PRVs are commonly used
in water systems to reduce the pressure of water flowing
between zones of the water system, and to reduce pressure to
a level appropriate for use by water system customers. Tens
of thousands of PRV valve applications are estimated to be
operating in the United States. PRVs are an excellent indicator
of significant pressure in a system that can benefit from the
LucidPipe Power System. We want to deploy our systems in
a PRV zone, but upstream of the PRV so to convert the excess
pressure to energy before it gets dissipated by the PRV. This
will also reduce wear and tear on expensive PRVs in the water
system.

http://www.lucidenergy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Glossary_july2013.pdf

I suppose water systems have to be designed to handle peak conditions, and that can mean that at other times there can be excess pressure. And that excess pressure must come from the physical height of a reservoir feeding the system, rather than a pump, for this to be worth it. It may be that they have to pump water into the reservoir at times; but this enables them to recover some of the energy they'd otherwise have to dissipate.

[Yo_Mama]

13. Thank you so much!!!!

That makes total sense, and explains why they installed new piping with the turbines.