Water Turbine Turns Canals Into Clean Energy

EarthTechling:

Hydrovolts is a Seattle, Washington-based start-up with an innovative micro-hydro turbine technology. Instead of relying on natural water resources, the Hydrovolts turbine is designed specifically for use in man-made waterways, such as irrigation canals, water diversion channels, discharge channels for wastewater, cooling water discharges from thermal power plants and large hydropower projects.

Read the whole story: EarthTechling

Comments

[vetxcl]

05:09 PM on 02/10/2012

Yea!! Good stuff! Glad to hear it.

[Moose Luck 99]

03:32 PM on 01/09/2012

Sea mammals get revenge!
A manatee actually swallowed one in testing and will not give it back.

[vetxcl]

05:19 PM on 02/10/2012

Maybe you should sober up before posting.
"{Unlike Puget Sound, “these canals generally have steady, predictable currents, contain little or no debris, have no endangered species, and are easily accessible by road,” he said. “They are also typically maintained by large engineering organizations that know how to handle machinery.”}" - from the article. Next time you forget to take your antabuse in Washington state, please be sure to post that you saw one there.

[mamacat]

02:44 PM on 12/25/2011

http://www.tgdaily.com/sustainability-features/60401-why-the-eu-is-winning-the-clean-energy-race

It if can be done cost efficiently, it is a wonderful idea. Like a hybrid car recovering some of the energy that would otherwise be lost in braking, recovering some of the energy that is developed by downhill flowing water makes a lot of sense.

Besides canals, there are many locations in mountainous terrain that are near rapidly moving bodies of water where some adaptation of this technology might be practical.

[ThinkCreeps]

03:40 PM on 12/24/2011

Energy flux divided by momentum flux from slow-speed flows makes them almost worthless.
You need a hugely tough and expensive structure to catch almost no power.

Divert some flow into a penstock to speed it up, and then drive a turbine from that, returning the outfall to the channel.

There's a serious reason that people build dams instead of dangling windmills in the river.

[jeffneumanlee]

09:16 AM on 12/24/2011

Who is this EarthTechling site? Anybody have any good understanding of who's behind it?

[ThinkCreeps]

03:36 PM on 12/24/2011

Someone who wants to sell you a filing cabinet that generates 100W or a freight container than generates 16kW. And then when it wears out, to sell you another one, before the first one generated enough energy to cover the energetic costs of its construction. Nice work if you can get it.

[vetxcl]

05:23 PM on 02/10/2012

Nope. That would be the max output of just one, and it's significantly smaller than a frieght container since it can be installed by only two people. Pays for itself in five years, according to the list price and is designed by code to last over ten. So you don't like cheap renewable energy.
Next exception?

[vetxcl]

05:10 PM on 02/10/2012

Anthropomorphism is a thinking error. You are not a corporation.

[Madashell34432]

09:14 AM on 12/24/2011

I believe this type of tech was attempted in the tidal areas of the rivers around N.Y. But the engineers underestimated the force of the water on the impellers, they bent, but the idea was sound. Great to see we are still working on this type of power generation.

[vetxcl]

05:27 PM on 02/10/2012

Yeah, I missed that part. Where is it written (about this specific product, by this company) that they bent? Maybe next you'll claim they can't be designed from different metals too.

Next exception?

[JScott]

02:08 AM on 12/24/2011

I thought they already did this in some water distribution projects, like LADWP's canal, since it can capture energy as it flows by gravity from the Eastern Sierra to LA. Perhaps the design is a little difference.

[fireofenergy]

08:05 PM on 12/23/2011

This is good news... I hear that the pumping of water is one of the "great energy users". Given equal efficiencies, up to 90% could be saved if such devises were used large and small (assuming the 10% goes to the electric motor).
However, "perfect" balancing out would render the entire water pumping process useless due to loss of pressure (given equal land elevation)!
Therefore, this concept is best for recouping energy when water need to be slowed going downhill, and for too high a pressure at the end user.
I know it's tempting to say "there's got to be unlimited energy in a million+ mile network of canals" but there can be no way to capture more energy than it takes to pump it into the canals in the first place (unless the well or lake is higher in elevation).
Hopefully there are other applications I don't know of...

[Moose Luck 99]

05:07 PM on 12/23/2011

Protect the Manatees Protect the manatees!

[vetxcl]

05:28 PM on 02/10/2012

Run out and save all the Washington state manatees right now!! Hurry!! They're calling to you!!!

[Genders]

03:59 PM on 12/23/2011

I hope this technology works out, it's really attractive. I so glad it's being tested full scale. Let's hope it doesn't kill fish, or cause blockage of the channels, or other unforeseen problems.

[Aerobat]

06:01 PM on 12/23/2011

This technology has been working for a long time in Imperial County California. The Imperial Irrigation District (IID) has been using generators within there system to power the system itself.

If you are not familiar, Imperial Valley a huge agricultural area. It is irrigated mostly by gravity fed canals from the Colorado River and they use the elevation drops within the system to power the generators. There are places they need "Lift Pumps" but those are adequately powered by the generators as well as all the control equipment and instrumentation.

I think the difference here is that the turbines Hydrovolts are making are more efficient. That makes sense since IID's generators are older technology.

[Genders]

08:03 PM on 12/23/2011

FF. I too, have seen the progress on these underwater turbines, so far so good. I hope that continues, but I want to know if fish kill is a problem. I have not seen the data on that yet.

[Kenz300]

02:48 PM on 12/23/2011

This is great!

What we need are more safe, clean and distributed energy sources.

[Madashell34432]

09:04 AM on 12/24/2011

Ideally like that word "distributed" as opposed to centralized for power generation. It brings to mind every home and commercial building becoming a mini power station, dc to ac inverters for everyone.

[vetxcl]

05:30 PM on 02/10/2012

Conditionally faved, if you can figure out that these people will do that commercially.

[cadawa]

02:30 PM on 12/23/2011

There were little mini turbines in the 60's. Glad to see this simple, sensible technology gaining acceptance. My neighbor tells me there are a cadre of retired Boeing engineers that are working on alternate energy projects here in the Seattle area. A lot better than designing missles etc.

[beckjr2000]

12:16 PM on 12/23/2011

Refinements is a very old technology.

[Madashell34432]

09:06 AM on 12/24/2011

W h a t ?

[beckjr2000]

11:20 AM on 12/26/2011

Ever hear of a water wheel?