[MCN] A city's water pipelines may supply some electricity

[Lance Olsen]

City water pipelines offer a small energy source for utilities
Published: Tuesday, July 28, 2015
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2015/07/28/stories/1060022492

EXCERPTS

Imagine the water running in the maze of pipelines buried under your 
feet as you cross the street powering the electrons supplying light 
to your house.

Two Western U.S. cities are aspiring to do just that with 
experimental technology designed to harness the energy from water 
flowing through municipal pipelines to power up homes.

Lucid Energy is behind a project in Portland, Ore., that will 
generate about 1,100 megawatts of electricity -- enough to feed about 
150 homes in Portland.

"It's low-cost baseload environmental electricity" addressing a 
"nexus of energy," Semler said, where water and energy meet in a 
push-and-pull kind of relationship.

Whether the gamble pays off is also in the distant future, with the 
project's possible expansion somewhat hanging on Rocky Mountain 
Power's buying prowess.

"It's free power," Pearson said. "[As] technology progresses, who 
knows, maybe we'll be able to generate more power like this in the 
future."

http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2015/07/28/stories/1060022492

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"How does one justify trying to cope with what may be intractable 
problems? The very nature of the question belies its origins in the 
assumption of science that one has to believe that all problems are 
solvable."

Seymour Sarason. The Nature of Problem Solving in Social Action. 
American Psychologist. April, 1978
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" 'Triage' is a dirty word in some conservation circles, but like 
many dirty words, it describes something common. Whether they admit 
it or not, conservationists have long had to make decisions about 
what to save.

"As more and more admit it, open discussion about how the decisions 
are best made -- by concentrating on particular species, or 
particular places, or absolute costs, or any other criterion -- 
becomes possible. Whichever criteria come into play, one thing 
remains constant. The decisions have to be made quickly."

Emma Marris, "What To Let Go."
NATURE November 8, 2007
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