Used in dams to generate electricity

There is a sort of time warp happening at Hanover Pond Dam, with ancient technology being set up to create contemporary water-powered energy, you might say going back the pond to the purpose it was designed for when you look at the 1850s.

In the past, this little dam from the Quinnipiac River had been created to help energy certainly one of Meriden's cutlery manufacturing flowers. The mini-hydro task becoming applied will be making electrical energy to assist cut the town's energy expenses.

The millenniums-old unit used to generate clean energy for twenty-first century is known as an "Archimedes screw, " named for most well-known of all of the Greek mathematicians and creators.

"it is rather environmentally friendly and reduced influence, " said Steve Montemurro, the town's it manager and chair of Meriden's energy task force. "oahu is the firstly its sort in the U.S."

Chris Conover is marketing director for New The united kingdomt Hydropower Co., the plan's designer. He stated that "one great advantage to this whole system is the fact that it's fish-friendly." Seafood can move across the screw, which just revolves 30 to 40 times per minute, without harm. It's a vital explanation condition and national wildlife officials have an interest.

"The technology being used at Hanover Pond permits the no-cost movement associated with the river and safe and simple passageway for aquatic life into the water, all while creating energy, " stated Dennis Schain, a spokesman for the state dept. of Energy and Environmental cover.

"this process provides the promise of comparable projects at various other dams, both private and state-owned, across our condition, " Schain included.

This kind of generating task has been used effectively in European countries for approximately a decade. The Massachusetts-based developers who are setting up the system and can function it believe it offers possible across this state and also the rest of the latest England.

Conover said their organization has surveyed a huge selection of small dams in the area and it is specific there are many sites in which this particular minor hydro-power could be utilized.

Hydro-electric energy is normally created on an enormous scale at huge services such as the Hoover Dam, along with already been considered unsuitable for smaller dams like those spread across Connecticut and other New The united kingdomt states.

Hundreds of streams and streams in this region had been dammed to produce energy for mills and production facilities that sprang up through the Industrial Revolution associated with the 1800s.

Conover stated his company has surveyed significantly more than 800 dams in the area and that several seem to be good prospects when it comes to form of hydro-technology being installed in Meriden.

"There are a few really good sites suitable for the Archimedes screw in Connecticut, " Conover said, but he was unwilling to be more specific because of worries about potential competition from other developers.

The Meriden website was chosen because Hanover Pond Dam had been recently repaired, was in very good condition, had its very own fish ladder and ended up being totally city-owned, which simplified negotiations and allowing, according to Conover.

The huge 40-foot-long screw had been set up and employees were hectic recently putting obstacles and covers around it.

Conover stated their business cooperated with condition wildlife experts in a report final spring to determine what types of seafood had been coming upriver. Once the hydro-powered generating system is in operation, the business will monitor the seafood driving down and up the lake for 3 years, Conover said.

The Archimedes screw technology had been originally found in ancient Egypt and Greece to go water from 1 area to a different, and famously assisted create much of the dry-land that's today holland. The power-generating variation developed in the last decade roughly uses a reverse movement, delivering liquid from the large side of a dam down through a huge pipe to make a screw inside, which transfers power to a power generator.

The unit getting used at Hanover Pond Dam is anticipated to produce about 900, 000 kilowatts of power a year. Montemurro said the town is looking to cut its electrical energy bill by about $20, 000 a year.

Which could not appear to be much, but Conover explains the Archimedes screw technology "is incredibly durable" and could be delivering non-polluting energy for 40 or 50 years. The developers tend to be picking right on up all costs associated with the task, including allowing, equipment and set up, and intend to recuperate those.

Earlier in the day this thirty days, the 20-ton device had been delivered by tractor-trailer to the Meriden dam from New London. Made by Spaans Babcock for the Netherlands, the product had been shipped to Connecticut final October.