Electric trucks, rather than dams, have been recommended by scientists as a more straightforward but efficient alternative.
A dam is erected over a river in a conventional hydroelectric facility, causing a reservoir to form right upstream of the dam. When a dam’s gate is opened, water from the reservoir rushes through, lowering the dam’s elevation. It generates power by spinning up turbines while it does so.
Unfortunately, the reservoir’s construction necessitates the flooding of land that may have formerly housed woods, crops, or even people’s houses. The dam’s existence can also cause the river’s flow to be significantly slowed, the water temperature to rise, and silt to build in the stream.
Dams also prevent spawning salmon from migrating upstream, and fish may be damaged when they pass through the gates downstream.
The Electric Truck Hydropower System is designed to help with this. Scientists from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis work on the concept, which might be used in hilly areas with steep roadways. Initially, it would be filled with enormous tanks with river water at a “charging site” placed at a high elevation on a mountain river.
Would be placed Each tanK into its electric vehicle, which would transport it down the mountain. The driver would effectively be riding the brakes down due to the route’s steepness, with the water considerably increasing the vehicle’s inertial mass.
The drive down would create power, which would then utilize to charge the truck’s battery, thanks to a regenerative braking mechanism. Would take the tank from the truck, the water contained within it would be discharged back into the river, and remove the truck’s battery to generate energy to the local grid once it reached a “discharge station” at the bottom.
Would then load the truck with an empty tank and a replacement battery that had just enough juice to bring the vehicle back to the charging station.
The plan is for a fleet of trucks to constantly move between the two sites, scooping up and discharging water. Importantly, the amount of power they used on the way up would be far lower than the amount they produced on the way down.
Indeed, the scientists predict that if the system were adopted globally, it might create 1.2 petawatt-hours of Energy every year. For the year 2019, that amount represents around 4% of global energy usage. According to the researchers, the system is expected to cost between $30 and $100 per megawatt-hour, whereas traditional hydropower costs between $50 and $200 per megawatt-hour.”
This technique doesn’t require dams, reservoirs, or tunnels, and it doesn’t interfere with the river’s natural flow or fish passage,” said Julian Hunt, the main scientist. “The system just requires existing roadways, charging and discharging stations akin to tiny car parks, a grid-connected battery facility, and trucks.”
An open-access publication recently published in the journal Energy provides more insights on how the Electric Truck Hydropower system might function.
