Hydoelectric turbines have been installed in one of the main water pipelines in Portland, Oregon, utilizing the water pressure to produce electricity.
The turbines work where water is flowing downhill, and are already recouping some of the energy cost in keeping the water system running. When fully in place, these pipe generators can power hundreds of thousands of homes.
Gregg Semler, CEO of Lucid Energy, followed his dream of "helping water become more sustainable" by developing this smart piping system. Not only are they electricity generators, they also have state of the art sensors to detect change in water pressure to keep pipes from bursting, and the ability to detect if drinking water is contaminated.
For water utilities, which use massive amounts of electricity, the system can make it cheaper to provide clean drinking water. Utilities can either use the power themselves or sell it to a city as a new source of revenue.
"We have a project in Riverside, California, where they're using it to power streetlights at night," Semler says. "During the day, when electricity prices are high, they can use it to offset some of their operating costs."
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 totalenergy 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.
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