Mar 4 2011
The RiverStar BackPack Power Plant developed by Bourne Energy is capable of performing more than one role.
Apart from functioning as a sustainable watermaker and a river power generator, it can also double up as an energy regenerator in industrial and power utility plants. It will be unveiled at the CleanTech Forum, San Francisco from 14-16 March, 2011.
Developed to harness a river’s natural flow without a dam, Bourne's RiverStar BackPack Power Plant is the most advanced hydrokinetic technology. It removes the need for excavation, use of explosives and the construction of access roads. It can be placed directly in a river and thus replaces large scale dam/reservoir construction and does not consider specific geological features as in the case of a reservoir or dam construction. With flowing water, it can generate hundreds of watts of hydropower from streams to megawatts of power from large rivers.
With 20% of global electricity being generated using hydropower, Bourne’s new technology can potentially help open thousands of hydropower plants throughout the world. Additionally, it is a solution that can provide clean water to remote areas in Asia, Africa and South America.
A hybrid solar-hydro generator can be created by integrating solar panels into the unit, which will harness solar power as well as hydro power. By positioning the generator near the outlets of the 2,500 hydropower dams, waste energy can be captured, thereby increasing the power output of the dam.
The easy-to-install BackPack power plant can harness power from majority of the 80,000 non-hydropower dams worldwide. The wide scope of its application include power and water utilities, data centers, pulp & paper, bottling plants, mining, agriculture, textiles, chemicals, semiconductors, metals production, coal and oil & gas.
Source: http://www.bourneenergy.com/