Loads of potential for energy recovery in water infrastructure, but how many sites are truly feasible?
Loads of potential for energy recovery in water infrastructure, but how many sites are truly feasible? One of the key objectives of the project is to shortlist the logistics of potential for energy recovery throughout water and wastewater infrastructure. Lots of sites exist, but what makes them technically and economically viable is more challenging to determine.
Four step process: energy recovery assessment at water and wastewater infrastruture sites
The team’s latest piece of work aims to answer some of these questions by providing a stepped methodology for assessment of all sites. The work has just recently been accepted as a journal paper in Renewable Energy which is entitled “A strategic assessment of micro-hydropower in the UK and Irish water industry: Identifying technical and economic constraints”. In summary, of the 238 sites that we assessed 80 of those are the most viable and can generate 17.9 GWh per annum. This equates to savings of €2.5 million a year, offsetting 10,000 tonnes of CO2 and generating enough electricity for 4,700 homes. To download the paper, click here. Or for more information on the work.
Publication date: 27 April 2015