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Undulating Plastic Strips in River May Generate Town’s Electricity A grid of undulating plastic strips on the bottom of the Kiskiminetas River may soon generate 20 to 40 percent of the electricity needed to power the center of an old steel town in Pennsylvania.
The town of Vandergrift, northeast of Pittsburgh, hopes to reinvent itself as a model of sustainability by upping conservation efforts and deriving hydroelectric power from its river without resorting to a dam. The undulating strips will be made of polyvinylidene fluoride, a piezoelectric material that will generate a slight electrical current when moved by the river’s currents and eddies. The resulting current will be transmitted to small substations along the river’s edge and stored in a group of batteries. The grid will be about 30 yards wide and approximately a mile long, though final plans are still being worked out. Researchers are aiming to design a system that will preserve the ecosystem and appearance of the Kiskiminetas.
The system, the first of its kind, will capture the energy of the moving water without causing the environmental impact a conventional dam would, though the amount of energy it can generate will also be significantly less. The energy generated by the project will be supplemented by solar panels and aggressive conservation efforts on the part of the town. Return to September 2008 Western Energy News To sponsor Western Energy News , please contact WEI at 503 231-1994.
Copyright © 2008. Reuse of this publication or its contents is allowed with credit to Western Energy Institute. WEI - 827 NE Oregon Street, Portland, Oregon 97232-2172
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