WRITING, GENIUS INVENTION Portland's New Pipes Harvest Power From Drinking Water | We Are Change

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Portland’s New Pipes Harvest Power From Drinking Water by alecope88 | Jan 28, 2015 | Positive News | 155 Comments

Fact Coexist

If you live in Portland, your lights may now be partly powered by your drinking water. An ingenious new system captures

energy as water flows through the city’s pipes, creating hydropower without the negative environmental effects of something

like a dam.

Small turbines in the pipes spin in the flowing water, and send that energy into a generator.

“It’s pretty rare to find a new source of energy where there’s no environmental impact,” says Gregg Semler, CEO of Lucid

Energy, the Portland-based startup that designed the new system. “But this is inside a pipe, so no fish or endangered species

are impacted. That’s what’s exciting.”

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 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

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Portland's New Pipes Harvest Power From Drinking Water | We... http://wearechange.org/portlands-new-pipes-harvest-power-drin...

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there are onboard information systems that water agencies can get to more precisely manage their infrastructure.”

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 the city that don’t have an electrical

grid, you’re able to use the system to generate energy.”

The biggest potential for the new system may be in places like California, where 20% of total energy use goes into the water

supply—and even more electricity will be used as cities start to install desalination plants. With the pipes, utilities can

generate some of their own much-needed power.

“There’s a lot of energy in going into making sure we have safe clean drinking water,” Semler says. “Our focus is really on

helping water become more sustainable.”

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158 Comments We Are Change Login!1

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• Reply •

Arthur Ladd • 2 hours ago

Guys we would like to invest to expand your business

• Reply •

Rob • 4 hours ago

I think the opportunity is great for Gravity fed systems, however you are basically creating a hydroelectricdamn out of the supply system. What didn't make sense was the comment about using the power fordesalinating situation. Those scenarios city's would be pumping from sea level and processing. So there isn'tany kinetic energy available.

1

• Reply •

Jay McGhee • 7 hours ago

So.. like now we won't run out of wind because of all of those wind powered generators using it all up right?

• Reply •

Mahhn • 2 hours ago> Jay McGhee

You would have to stop the earth from rotating to stop the wind, not going to happen.

• Reply •

fdsfkdsfidsifidsii • 11 minutes ago> Mahhn

Wind happens because of heating and cooling, not the rotation of the Earth. The Coriolis effectonly changes the direction of the wind.

• Reply •

Jay McGhee • 11 minutes ago> Mahhn

Build enough of those wind generators and you'll stop the earth!

• Reply •

fdsfkdsfidsifidsii • 14 minutes ago> Jay McGhee

Please tell me you're joking. I assume you are, but some people really are that stupid.

• Reply •

Gregory Diana • 12 hours ago

In many bulk water supply systems water is fed from reservours via gravity and in many instances the waterflow is regulated by wasteful regulating valves. Even in some pump based systems such wasteful regulatorvalves are used (similar to wasteful dampers in airconditioning systems). In such instances the energywasteful valves may be replaced by systems such as that being proposed in which the energy used toregulate the flow and pressure is recovered. This concept is not new and is being used elsewhere around theglobe. It is about good engineering, context and appropriate use and based on some commentry appearssomewhat vague in this regard.

3

• Reply •

Tim • 16 hours ago

This is a joke right? There is not such thing as free energy. If energy is being removed from the water in thepipe, it must be added to the water somewhere else.

It is like an electric car. It doesn't eliminate emissions. It just moves them to the power plant. 4

• Reply •

Innovating is joke • 2 hours ago> Tim

Thanks for the heads up Tim. I thought that this was a great solution (that has actually beenimplemented for a few years now) because in water supply there is a lot of energy consumed (inpumping), that yes, it is added to the network in some place, but wasted through valves in some otherplaces to reduce the pressure (put turbines instead of valves? what a joke.... Or is an even betteroption when there is a water reservoir (natural or otherwise) at a higher altitude that the location that isbeing supplied.

But thanks to the knowledgeable input from an hydraulic engineer (you are an engineer right?) writingin the comments section, now I know that there are no good solutions anywhere, so I might as welltype in the comments section instead of working on innovative ways to improve my surrounding.

Mahhn • 2 hours ago> Tim

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WRITING, GENIUS INVENTION Portland's New Pipes Harvest Power From Drinking Water | We Are Change