New smart infrastructure!
The innovative city of Portland has unveiled plans for new smart water pipes that harvest power. They will generate electricity for streetlights, and in addition are equipped with sensors to monitor pressure, flow, and safety. Alerts will be triggered in real time if for example unsafe chemicals or bacteria are detected in the water stream.
The pipes generate power in places where the water is naturally flowing downward, so no additional strain on pumps is needed to produce the energy.
“It’s pretty rare to find a new source of energy where there’s no environmental impact,” says Gregg Semler, CEO of Lucid Energy, the Portland-based startup that designed the new system. “But this is inside a pipe, so no fish or endangered species are impacted. That’s what’s exciting.”
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