I watched the video, and it’s pretty impressive so far, though for specific use cases i.e. not in all rivers at all spots, AT ALL. But for Fast moving spots in rivers that have the required depth (which is not a ton of depth), These seem to have a lot of potential for very low impact power harvesting with few drawbacks. They slow down the flow of water a bit but for areas that are somewhat steep that is probably more of a benefit than a drawback. They are clearly way way less impactful than for example building a dam. And so far they seem to be fairly thoughtfully designed to avoid contaminating the area or harming the existing fish and so forth.
They slow down the flow of water a bit but for areas that are somewhat steep that is probably more of a benefit than a drawback.
Slowing a river down raises the water level, which can risk flooding. Every section of river has to let through a certain amount of water per second, and slowing the water down means you need a bigger cross-sectional area to get the same throughput so the water level rises. This can create a feedback spiral because a higher water level slows the river down further because there is less height difference with further upstream and thus less force driving the water downstream against the friction of the riverbanks.
Luckily it seems these turbines can be removed quickly, so unless the engineers fuck up they shouldn’t increase flood risk.
@poVoq how can I get more information about this? I wasn’t able to watch the video from Germany
What’s really amusing about this is that the name of the YT poster is “German Science Guy”.
Here’s the text description from the post:
The world’s first approved swarm power plant has gone into operation on the Rhine! The aim is to harness the Rhine’s current to drive 124 turbines. Similar plants are already planned for other cities as well. The system is capable of providing baseload power, meaning it generates electricity constantly, and at 8 cents per kilowatt-hour, the electricity price is competitive with solar and wind power. In this video, you’ll learn how swarm power plants work, how much electricity they produce, and just how much potential this technology holds.
This video was produced by my editorial Team. Editorial staff: Lukas Laroche, Tabea Desch, Jacob Beautemps; Editing: Sören Rensch, Sebastian Schubert & Romy Gruetter
Sources
Source 1: https://www.ingenieur.de/technik/fachbereiche/energie/strom-aus-dem-fluss-erstes-schwarmkraftwerk-startet-am-rhein/
Source 2: https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/koblenz/schwarmkraftwerk-im-rhein-engeryminer-st-goar-100.html
Source 3: https://www.zdfheute.de/wissen/schwarmkraftwerk-rhein-goar-energie-wasserkraft-100.html
Source 4: https://energyminer.eu/
Source 5: https://mkuem.rlp.de/service/pressemitteilungen/detail/katrin-eder-weltweit-erstes-energyfish-schwarmkraftwerk-liefert-klima-und-umweltfreundlichen-strom-aus-dem-rhein
Source 6: https://blaue-biooekonomie.de/projekte/energyfish Source 7: https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/klima-energie/erneuerbare-energien/nutzung-der-wasserkraft
Source 8: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212428422000068
Source 9: https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/efba04ce-2472-4df1-9873-fb170c055259/WorldEnergyOutlook2024.pdf
Source 10: https://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/augsburg/energyfishe-schwimmende-wasserkraftwerke-sollen-am-lech-strom-erzeugen-108893068 Source 11: https://share.google/dZdL9Qhwkda8MxcIY Source 12: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379726953_Assessment_of_Fish_Interactions_with_the_Energyminer_Energyfish_Hydrokinetic_Turbine_Prepared_for_Prepared_by Source 13: https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/elbe-ts-100.html Source 14: https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Umwelt/UGR/private-haushalte/Tabellen/stromverbrauch-haushalte.html
Source 15: https://www.wind-energie.de/themen/anlagentechnik/funktionsweise/widerstandlaeufer-auftriebslaeufer/
Source 16: https://www.weltderphysik.de/gebiet/technik/energie/windenergie/technik-der-windkraft/ Source 17: https://www.lanuk.nrw.de/fileadmin/lanuv/wasser/uploads/Weiteres_zur_Ökologie_der_Fließgewässer.pdf@WhoIzDisIz yeah that’s what I thought too ^^
Sorry, I added info to my initial reply so you may want to look at it again.
Love seeing new ways to harness cleaner energy, but not quite sure this seems like an optimal approach versus alternatives. Just worried that filling waterways with a ton of small devices will end up resulting in more pollutants/microplastics down the road.
