Portland to generate electricity within its own water pipes

There’s a lot of water constantly moving through the municipal pipelines of most major cities. While the water itself is already destined for various uses, why not harness its flow to produce hydroelectric power? Well, that’s exactly what Lucid Energy’s LucidPipe Power System does, and Portland, Oregon has just become the latest city to adopt it.

LucidPipe simply replaces a stretch of existing gravity-fed conventional pipeline, that’s used for transporting potable water. As the water flows through, it spins four 42-inch (107-cm) turbines, each one of which is hooked up to a generator on the outside of the pipe. The presence of the turbines reportedly doesn’t slow the water’s flow rate significantly, so there’s virtually no impact on pipeline efficiency.

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CrazyNeutrino said:

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“The presence of the turbines reportedly doesn’t slow the water’s flow rate significantly, so there’s virtually no impact on pipeline efficiency.”
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This would seem to contradict some fundamental principles of thermodynamics.

btm said:

CrazyNeutrino said:

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“The presence of the turbines reportedly doesn’t slow the water’s flow rate significantly, so there’s virtually no impact on pipeline efficiency.”
…

This would seem to contradict some fundamental principles of thermodynamics.

Yes, I was wondering about that, energy in, energy out, wouldn’t that have to compensate by creating more water pressure to counteract the in pipe devices?

Without reading the article my first reaction to this would not be “Wow what a great idea” , I’d want to see a cost benefit analysis before even reading the prospectus.
Pipe sizes and pumping stations and gravity reticulation is an extremely well defined and engineered discipline.

Peak Warming Man said:

Without reading the article my first reaction to this would not be “Wow what a great idea” , I’d want to see a cost benefit analysis before even reading the prospectus.
Pipe sizes and pumping stations and gravity reticulation is an extremely well defined and engineered discipline.

meh… if i can do it, anyone can…

i guess the water flow slowing would depend on the turbine design and the amount of power delivered.

It’d work somewhere like Armidale NSW, where it’s entirely a gravity reticulation system within the city. My water pressure there (in the valley) was outstanding.

CrazyNeutrino said:

btm said:

CrazyNeutrino said:

…

“The presence of the turbines reportedly doesn’t slow the water’s flow rate significantly, so there’s virtually no impact on pipeline efficiency.”
…

This would seem to contradict some fundamental principles of thermodynamics.

Yes, I was wondering about that, energy in, energy out, wouldn’t that have to compensate by creating more water pressure to counteract the in pipe devices?

I would assume that they are only capturing a very small amount of the total power.

it would cause blockages