A strategic assessment of micro-hydropower in the UK and Irish water industry: Identifying technical and economic constraints

J. Gallagher, I.M. Harris, A.J. Packwood, A. McNabola and A.P. Williams

Renewable Energy, 2015, vol. 81, issue C, 808-815

Abstract: Energy recovery using micro-hydropower (MHP) technology can enhance the sustainability of the water industry. This paper presents a structured four-step methodology for assessing potential energy recovery sites in water and wastewater infrastructure in regions of the UK and Ireland; at service reservoirs (SRVs), pressure reducing valves (PRVs) and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Step 1 helped identify different all potential energy recovery sites in water and wastewater infrastructure. Step 2 shortlisted the most feasible sites for energy recovery, with the potential to generate an estimated 17.9 GWh per annum. Step 3 considered the technical and economic challenges relating to energy recovery and considered turbine selection, varying flow and site characteristics, feed-in tariffs (FITs) and overall project costs. Lastly, Step 4 provided evidence for the most feasible projects for Wales and Ireland based on capacity; larger than 3.6 or 18.2 kW at WWTP locations, 4.8 or 24.8 kW at PRVs and 12.8 or 22.2 kW at SRV sites, respectively. However, cheaper turbine technology and better financial incentives may improve the feasibility of smaller potential energy recovery sites. The results provide water companies with an estimated feasible capacity for potential energy recovery through MHP installations at different water and wastewater infrastructure sites.

Keywords: Energy recovery; Geographical information systems; Feed-in tariffs; Flow and pressure variations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148115002694
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:81:y:2015:i:c:p:808-815

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2015.03.078

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().