Portland's New Pipes Harvest Power from Drinking Water

[steve19]

Extracts from the Lucid Energy FAQ [0] ....

How does the system work?

The LucidPipe™ Power System uses the flow of water inside the PWB pipeline to spin four 42” turbines that produce electricity for PGE [Portland General Electric]. PGE purchases the electricity from Conduit 3 as part of their strong commitment to both renewables and local sources of energy.

How much energy will the project generate?

This is a 200 kW nameplate capacity project. The system is expected to generate an average of 1,100 megawatt hours of energy per year, enough electricity to power up to 150 homes.

...

DOE Grant – The U.S. Department of Energy awarded Lucid Energy a phase 1 SBIR grant to field test the LucidPipe technology.

Investors – Lucid Energy has secured private funding from a very active syndicate of investors including Northwest Pipe Company, the Israeli hybrid venture capital/crowdsourcing platform OurCrowd, Star Energy and the Harbourton Fund as well as more than $1 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. The funding is being used to accelerate commercialization of the LucidPipe Power System worldwide

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Notably absent is what percentage of the power revenue Portland gets from the energy generated.

[0] http://www.lucidenergy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Lucid-...

[marshray]

> 1,100 megawatt hours of energy per year, enough electricity to power up to 150 homes.

That doesn't quite add up, that comes to only 837 watts (average use) per home. For perspective, a microwave oven uses 1500 watts while it's on. A rough estimate for a central AC system is 3500 watts. http://www.senicaair.com/blog/how-many-watts-does-an-air-con...

Maybe they don't tend to have central AC in Portland, but electric heating can use even more.

[lucasjans]

For those interested in more details on this project, PBS Newshour had a good report on it in April https://youtu.be/vlbp0VxZG28

[Justin_K]

I've never understood the concept of something like this. Isn't the energy generated canceled out with power expended to pump it through? I feel like friction would never make something like this useful.

Can someone explain how this kind of generation is beneficial?

[latch]

"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)."

[viraptor]

Asked the same thing the last time this was posted. There's a good answer: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9835804 (in short, you already have too much pressure being relieved using valves along the way with the extra energy wasted)

[MLR]

This comment explains it pretty well I think.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9838012

It's the same idea behind regenerative braking.

[csense]

The energy is input by the sun which turns sea water (at sea level) into water vapor, which then moves to higher elevation due to weather patterns (also caused by sun's energy input) and falls as rain into a reservoir at higher elevation than the locations it serves.

[tristanj]

Salt Lake City is planning a similar project to harness energy from municipal water pipes. From 6 months ago:

https://www.ksl.com/?sid=35603966&nid=148

[viraptor]

Previous post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9835650 (different source)

[prawn]

I've often wondered why someone couldn't invent a home irrigation system that was recharged by the flow/pressure of water passing through.

[lmcnish14]

I hope that this will help lower the insanely high utility bills that Portland residents have to pay.

[dugword]

More likely it's going to raise your utility bill, Portland has to pay for our fancy new pipes somehow.