A fresh new project on Kickstarter takes on the ancient idea of water mills and creates a modern river turbine that can provide cheap and clean energy for water purification, agriculture and even plug-in gadgets to fight malaria.
Life without electricity is almost impossible to imagine. Yes, there are quite a number of emerging technologies and gadgets that are becoming available now, providing solutions to problems like our phone runs out of battery and there is no socket nearby. However, while we, the lucky ones, consider this being a major disaster, there are millions of people in Africa and South America, who do not have access to electricity to meet their basic needs. Many recent campaigns have tried to introduce solar as an alternative source of energy that could aid communities with no access to the grid. However, there are not so many, who have considered the possibility that solar might not be an option.
This is where the new gadget by Idénergie comes in. The first of its kind river turbine (see video here), which uses the natural flow of the rivers to generate electricity in a fast and effective way. The gadget was developed by a team of three renewable energy specialists, Pierre Blanchet- the CEO of Idénergie , Gilles Trottier and Denis Bastien, with the aim to provide a mean for improvement of living conditions and help the development of isolated communities.
The river turbine is very easy to assemble and install, causes no pollution or environmental damage, it works at all times and at any weather condition (unlike wind and solar) and it is made of suitable for recycling materials. The crucial component that makes the river turbine stand out is the green generator that the guys developed themselves, which comes in ten different versions, so that it could be efficient at different water velocity. In addition, the turbine is equipped with a converter that regulates the instrument and a waterproof compartment to contain all electronic components and ensure the safety of the unit.
If it all goes to plan, the guys hope that at the end of the Kickstarter campaign (end of July), they will have enough funds to produce the first set of turbines that will be tested and sent to Africa and Amazonia by the end of the year.
The initiative is great and it is definitely one of these campaigns that deserve support. If you are interested to find out more and take part, here is a link to the full campaign. It ends in less than a month, and the guys are still far off reaching their target.
Image (c) Idénergie
I’m pleased that run-of-river power generation is not dead yet! I live in British Columbia (Canada). Over 90% of our power is generated by big hydro dams, most built in the ’60’s. Hydro dams are no longer popular with the voters here because so much of the environment is damaged in building them.
What makes small run-of-the-river power generation desirable for us is that our huge, under-populated Province can not supply electrical power to many very-isolated native villages in the northern interior without using diesel generators and flying in drums of diesel fuel. The same situation exist throughout the north of Canada and Alaska.