How much the energy it literally flows under our feet!
It is the conclusion of a unique study of its kind, carried out by researchers from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The study, published in the journal (I link it here) examines the energy potential that small and micro-scale hydroelectric generators bolted to existing water pipes could collect.
The analysis
Using both existing data from water regulators and new sensing and remote sensing techniques, the ORNL team has taken the first, important steps towards realizing that we have a real untapped energy source.
I'm talking about awareness (and it is a concept that is repeated in this study), because at least in the US there is some hydroelectric energy using pipelines. "Only, that's 530 MW compared to a potential 1,41GW," he says Shih-Chieh Kao, head of the ORNL water program. An amount of energy that, alone, could power more than a million homes.
Yeah, the pipelines. Why have we never thought about it?
Hydropower (even a bit of nuclear power, to be honest) is facing serious challenges: climate change is starting to create serious problems for rivers, for example.
Exploiting water pipes for energy production would be a real blow: they would be distributed resources capable of producing small amounts of clean energy for local consumption.
"The untapped potential of the pipelines represents a great opportunity to develop clean and renewable hydropower," the study reads.
Energy from mains and beyond
To generate energy the ORNL writes in the study to consider as a possible source any "conveyance of artificial water managed for the distribution of water for agricultural, municipal or industrial consumption". A very large mesh, which also includes very small structures.
Most of the energy obtained would be used to stabilize the networks, and to reward the "virtuous" consumption of energy.
A good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: many of our nets require maintenance regardless if not replacement. Changing the pipelines to take advantage of also introducing hydroelectric technology inside them would be fantastic.
Like most things, it will take time
The best thing about this idea is that time plays in its favor. If a first analysis like this has highlighted so much potential, it is only necessary to understand how much possible untapped energy we could obtain with a more capillary mapping of the pipelines.
And in this the study is very clear: the calculated amount of energy can actually be much larger.
