Portland to generate sustainable energy from turbines installed within its water pipes

In an effort to remain “trendy and relevant” within the green space, Portland, hipster enclave and sustainable trendsetter extraordinaire, is tapping into its drinking water as an alternate source of renewable hydropower that doesn’t disrupt animal habitats. The northwestern city has teamed up with start-up Lucid Energy to insert hydroelectric generators within the pipes carrying water beneath the city to produce power for Portland General Electric customers. 

To accomplish its goal, the city replaced a section of the pipes carrying its underground drinking water with four forty-two inch turbines. Water flowing through the pipes spins the turbines powering the attached generator, before investing enough electricity to power 150 homes back into the power grid. The arrangement is known as “Conduit 3 Hydroelectric Project,” and is unsurprisingly being touted as the first in the nation. 

Lucid Energy CEO Gregg Semler explains that the in-pipe technique has minimal environmental impact and has the advantage over solar and wind energy of being constant. “The advantage we have compared to say solar or wind is we produce electricity around the clock,” he said. “It’s not weather dependent. So, electric utilities and farmers and industrial users can count on our energy from these pipes for energy around the clock.”

The project is currently wrapping up the vigorous final testing of the monitors and sensors, but once its fully operational, the installation will produce $2,000,000 worth of energy over twenty years based on the assumption that “an average of 1,100 megawatt hours of energy per year, enough electricity to power up to 150 homes.” It’s scheduled to begin full energy production within the next two months.

Semler mentions that his company is currently working with Las Vegas and other municipalities in California and Arizona in the hopes of rolling out the installation across other parts of the country. “There’s a huge amount of potential for this,” he said. “Once we’ve proven Portland over the next few months, we’ll announce our next one.”
 
Source: OPB.org