Image Credit: Eva Abreu/Flickr
New York City based Rentricity Inc. wants to capture the energy of water flowing through the city’s water pipes to generate hydroelectric power, reports The New York Times. Using their Flow-to-Wire energy recovery system, the company says that pressure in the pipes can be harnessed to produce between 20 and 300 kilowatts of electricity. The system works like typical pressure reduction valves (PRV) installed by municipalities to reduce the feed pressure from their water supplies, but instead of reducing pressure it harnesses it to generate power which then would be fed to the power grid to provide clean electric power.
The water supply for New York City is located 125 miles north in the Catskills and 95 percent of it is brought into the city via gravity alone, generating a massive amount of energy along the way. Pressure reduction valves are installed in the water system in order to reduce the pressure it arrives with. Speaking with The Times, Queens City Council member James F. Gennaro said that “at first, you have tremendous hydraulic head, about 600 pounds per square inch, and by the time it gets into the distribution system in the street, it’s about 60 pounds per square inch.” A bill recently signed into law by Mayor Bloomberg will study the feasibility of capturing this energy to generate clean energy.
However, New York’s Department of Environmental Protection doesn’t think it will work, due to both the lack of space beneath city streets for the hydroelectric systems and the fact that they would have to be connected to the power grid from the middle of street where the water valves are located. But someday soon it may, and this kind of hydroelectric energy would take its place next to solar, wind, and biogas plants providing us with the clean (local) energy that we need.
[via The New York Times]