In the 18th and 19th century, water power made New England an industrial powerhouse. Mill dams and ponds can still be found in nearly every town. Dartmouth is no exception. So what does that have to do with now?
I think that there is a real opportunity to ...
...put these old ponds and dams to use in a way that would benefit our town. Nearby communities, such as Fairhaven and Westport, have been debating wind power to help reduce energy costs. Fairhaven has chosen to proceed and Westport not. But there is another renewable energy source available to us, water. Micro hydro turbines could be installed at the mill dams in town and provide electricity to light our streets and perhaps even provide revenue. What do you think?
Monday, August 25, 2008
Back to the future
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8 comments:
This is a great idea! We need to look at all options when it comes to energy. How expensive is something like this? With our lack of funds right now, can we afford to do this in Dartmouth? It's worth a look.
Bill,
I did some preliminary research on this and found that our water power supply may not be sufficient to support a turbine. They are looking for at least an eight to ten foot drop where the water falls. The firm that I spoke with is in the initial stages of trying to do a water turbine in Woonsocket on the Blackstone River. The Blackstone is quite a bit more voluminous than the Pasky or the Shingle Island. Please don't be totally discouraged by this. The company I spoke with is a start up company and there are others out there. With your engineering backround, you are far more qualified than I to look into this idea. There are a few spots in town with some good tidal currents but those spots would run into other problems like fish migration, navigation and probably a host of others.
Interesting concept. I happened to read an article this weekend about water turbines:
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/17281199/detail.html
This was the 2nd article I had read about this. If I remember the first one correctly, they put a water wheel entirely under the surface, and use baffles and an orifice to direct the flow to the correct side of the wheel depending on whether the tide is coming in or going out.
I couldn't help but wonder if we had appropriate areas along the MA coast that would work. Anything in our area would of course be a big boon to our town, and this gets rid of the complaints about seeing wind turbines out on the water.
Barry,
The potential generating capacity is quite low as you point out. The sort of units that would be possible are in the tens of KW, not the type of thing that a company would invest in. But it may be possible to design and install small generators, perhaps with the help of the engineering students at UMass Dartmouth. They wouldn't run the waste treatment plant but could offset some of our street lighting costs.
The best form of alternative energy that we all have is at our feet GEOTHERMAL. Lawrence is currently working on a Mill to Condo conversion that will you use GEOTHERMAL energy to heat the building. GEOTHERMAL is not weather related like WIND,SOLAR and even WATER POWER. This form of alternative energy will someday surpass all the others even Nuclear. Iceland has shown the way we just need more people like T. Boon Pickens to fund the work and get it all started. Just my $.02
The best form of alternative energy that we all have is at our feet GEOTHERMAL. Lawrence is currently working on a Mill to Condo conversion that will you use GEOTHERMAL energy to heat the building. GEOTHERMAL is not weather related like WIND,SOLAR and even WATER POWER. This form of alternative energy will someday surpass all the others even Nuclear. Iceland has shown the way we just need more people like T. Boon Pickens to fund the work and get it all started. Just my $.02
The best form of alternative energy is right at our feet GEOTHERMAL. Lawrence currently has a Mill to Condo conversion that will be using GEOTHERMAL to heat the building. GEOTHERMAL is better because it is not weather dependent like SOLAR,WIND, and even WATER POWER. As long as the earth has a MOLTEN CORE we will always have GEOTHERMAL energy. GEOTHERMAL will surpass all the alternative energy sources even NUCLEAR. Iceland has shown the world how it is done, now all we need is more people like T. BOON PICKENS to fund the work and get this country strated. Unfortuantely it will never ever happen here we lack the political will to tell MOBIL EXXON
"sorry your days are numbered" Especially if McCAIN and the Alaskan BIMBO get voted in. Just MY $.02
Just another thought how about 15 WIND TURBINES in PADANARAM HARBOR!! I'm sure all the local's in SOUTH DARTMOUTH would love that!! Yeah Right, the same way they love to vote yes on an OVERRIDE VOTE!! LMOA!!!
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