By now we’re all familiar with the standard forms of renewable energy such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric. We’ve even seen new takes on some of these sources, and various kinetic devices to generate power from ocean waves. They all have their pros and cons, which is just the nature of things in our world, and so they all have some areas or uses that are better than some others. We are just lucky enough to live in a time where innovation seems to be ongoing and we see new ideas, some viable, some are likely to remain only ideas for a variety of reasons, though most often because the technology isn’t advanced enough to make them viable just yet. One company that has an idea that is already being put to use is Lucid Energy.

In a few cities there is a novel idea already in use and most of us are completely unaware of it and part of the reason for that is that it isn’t visible to us in our day to day lives. For instance, in Portland they have installed water pipes that contain mini turbines and generators built right in. These pipes are able to produce power as water flows through them, and that power can then either be used to help run the systems that supply the water to the city, or it can be sold and shifted to the main grid. In either case it helps cut down on costs and strain on the main electric grid because water is always flowing in the pipes beneath our cities.

Another benefit is that they can also monitor the quality of the water that is running through the pipes thus allowing the city to better keep up to date on any impending issues and fix them sooner. It may not be able to power the entire city, but this is a great idea to help provide some extra power by utilizing an existing source with zero environmental impact.