The CRD is talking about any sewage treatment plant that is built to recover heat from the sewage. a great idea and I support it. But what I wonder is why the CRD is not looking at the potential to generate electrical power from the water system?
The dam at the Sooke reservoir could easily have a turbine or two put into it and it could produce electrical power. Right now that potential power is all wasted when it could be producing green power. Doing this would be a quick and easy way to increase power production with no impact on the environment.
So why is the CRD not doing this?
I honestly do not know why communities all around BC are not making use of turbines on their water systems to produce green power.
3 comments:
Most likely it is not done because it is not economical. The amount of energy that can be extract is a function of the dam height. Power dams are very tall to generate energy whereas water supply dams are very wide to provide constant pressure.
A much likely problem is that water has to actually be pumped out of the reservoir into local pumping stations so putting in a turbine will just waste energy.
Power can be generated from low height dams as well as high. The economics are not the issue as the pay back time at even 2-3 cents a kwh would be very short.
The pumping stations may be an issue, but I do not know about how the system works. But not all of the water goes into the water system, much of it is spilled over the dam and it would be available to generate power.
Excess water could be harnessed to generate electricity. But I think capital costs alone would sink that idea.
The costs to harness what energy is in the overflow is probably too high to make it work given the low volume of water we're talking about. The finances are even less impressive if the overflow is seasonal instead of year round. That way you have a facility which is not operating much of the time but has to be designed to handle higher loads.
Pumping stations are likely a huge issue. Any local reservoir above the sooke reservoir requires pumping and even some below will require it too. Simply put, if you need a pumping station there is no energy to extract from the water stream.
I was recently at a presentation on water conservation and a significant amount of money was put into reducing water system pressure which saves water but makes the system much less useful for generating power.
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