Lucid Energy had the great idea of utilizing the rushing water that flows through underground pipes every day to generate electricity via kinetic energy. Small turbines are installed into the pipes which send the energy collected from the flowing water into a power generator.Lucid Energy President and CEO Gregg Semler talks about the LucidPipe Power System..
LucidPipe uses unique, in-pipe turbines that spin as water passes through them, producing clean, reliable, low-cost electricity with no impact on the environment or water delivery.It’s pretty rare to find a new source of energy where there’s no environmental impact. But this is inside a pipe, so no fish or endangered species are impacted. That’s what’s exciting,” Gregg Semler, CEO of Lucid Energy, said in a statement.
Lucid’s new power-generating pipes have recently been installed in Portland, where they are powering many different public spaces throughout the city. This is even more efficient than many other renewable forms of energy because these pipes can harness electricity 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, in any weather.
Advertisement
How it works: Water from snow and rainfall fills remote, high-elevation reservoirs, feeding pipelines that move water to the point-of-use. As the water flows downhill, gravity creates pressure in the pipeline that is normally relieved by pressure-reducing valves.
The LucidPipe turbines, which spin as water flows through them, are placed in-line in the pipes of a water transmission network. They generate electricity by harvesting the excess pressure in the pipeline, reducing the work done by pressure-reducing valves and turning an otherwise untapped energy source into clean electricity for on-site use, to charge batteries and electric vehicles or to feed back to the grid.
