WATER / WASTEWATER 17 Full hydropower ahead
By 2030, Germany wants to supply almost half of its total electricity requirements from renewable energy sources. Hydropower will play an important role in this. According to the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, its potential in Germany is largely exhausted. However, since hydropower flows continuously day and night and can be regulated at a moment’s notice, existing facilities are being modernized as much as possible and made more efficient. Without any support at all from the ‘Renewable Energy Sources Act’ in Germany, hydropower technology, with its high economic efficiency performs amazingly well in the face of unequal competition and helps reduce the load on the grid infrastructure by providing constant output.
Located a short distance the inlet structure, a VEGAWELL 52 suspension pressure transmitter provides redundancy with a second measurement, complementing that of VEGAPULS 64.
An international comparison
Despite its undeniable advantages, hydropower accounts for only a very small percentage, just over 3.5 %, of the total electricity generated in Germany. And among renewable energy sources, it accounts for only 10% of the total. In this respect, Austria and Switzerland paint a completely different picture: hydropower is the most important source of electricity in those countries, accounting for well over 50% in each. And worldwide, despite a downward trend, water still generates more than two thirds of the total electricity supply. This discrepancy between Germany and other countries is due to its different topology: “Hydropower is extremely demanding,” says Jochen Schneider, getting to the heart of the matter. “The impoundment depth and the water fall height must have certain values for the yield to be profitable. My colleagues in Austria work on a completely different scale. Damming heights of 70 meters and more are common there.”
Modernise – but thoughtfully
Like a big waste filter: the water that gets caught on the screen is returned to the Danube via a special channel.
Besides simply raising the water level, the modernization of the Böfinger Halde includes measures to avoid ecological damage. Drainage pipes and drawdown wells have been installed to prevent the groundwater level from rising. To provide a way for fish to swim around the power plant, a natural stream has been created instead of a fish ladder. “Nature has quickly recaptured
this new environment on its own,” explains Schneider, “and given the landscape aesthetic appeal here at the water’s edge. People have identified with it and begun using it enthusiastically as a local recreation area.” The turbines and generators in the Böfinger Halde power plant will thus continue to spin for a long time to come. And the noise they make is a sign that everything is running smoothly. Interestingly, the turbine manufacturer intends to use the noise in the near future to improve plant availability. He is working on an acoustic monitoring system that can detect any deviation of the noise from the normal state. The idea is to use that information to deduce when the ideal time for replacing mechanical parts has come.
How a hydropower plant works
Hydropower plants normally supply electricity continuously – day and night, whether it’s stormy or calm. Basically, they still work exactly the same way as the proverbial “clattering waterwheel mill on the rushing brook.”
The power of the flowing water is increased by a weir system with multiple sluice gates. Damming up the river water creates or increases the height difference. The higher this so-called drop height, the greater the efficiency. On rivers that only have a small downhill gradient, what is lacking in height can be compensated by correspondingly larger flow rates.
Author Contact Details Claudia Homburg, Marketing, VEGA Grieshaber KG • Am Hohenstein 113, 77761 Schiltach, Germany • Tel: +49 7836 50-0 • Email:
info.de@
vega.com •
www.vega.com
First aerial drone-dipping sensors take off
A cutting-edge new system for autonomous airborne hydrographic survey has been launched by THURN Group. The THURN QuickDipTM system of data collection uses aerial drones to carry Valeport sensors on pre-planned survey routes to deliver an efficient and repeatable method of gathering highly accurate survey data from inaccessible or dangerous waters.
UK-based THURN Group developed the innovative QuickDip technology for inland and coastal waterways to offer a range of benefits including: rapid data collection from multiple sites of interest, repeatable map-based surveys to monitor change detection, the ability to safely collect data from difficult-to-access and dangerous waters as well as restricted-access waters, such as reservoirs.
THURN QuickDip integrated drone-based system uses a Valeport sensor, a cable, a rotocopter drone and UgCS SkyHub/True Terraine Following (TTF) hardware - from leading software developer for unmanned aerial systems SPH Engineering. THURN’s integration of hardware and software allows the drone to fly at an accurate fixed height over water using a map-based pre-programmed autonomous survey pattern and dip the Valeport sensor into the water to take readings.
As Tom Hiller, General Manager, THURN Group commented there are many options with the QuickDip technology: “Using a drone to deploy sensors has distinct advantages over a boat; it is compact as well as easy to transport and deploy. Drones can be used in any location where there is a small area for take-off and landing, near the surveyed water. What makes this new system so exciting for autonomous data collection is a drone’s ability to precisely follow planned survey lines using the map-based interface in UgCS and therefore deliver accurate, repeatable map-based surveys in previously difficult to access waters.
“We’re launching the THURN QuickDip with the miniSVS and Hyperion range of Valeport sensors which are respected for their high levels of accuracy, but this is just the first in an expanding range of drone-dipped sensors for coastal and inland water survey.”
The compact and robust Environmental range of optical sensors from leading oceanographic and hydrographic instrument manufacturer, Valeport, are being offered as part of the QuickDip system, including the Hyperion range of environmental sensors for the measurement of Turbidity, Chlorophyll a, Fluorescein, Rhodamine or Phycocyanin as well as their popular miniSVS and SWiFT SVP.
Valeport’s Head of Sales, Kevin Edwards added: “THURN’s integrated drone-dipping sensor system offers an exciting step change in autonomous data collection and Valeport is proud to our support for innovation in the survey sector. Although this technology is launched with Valeport’s miniSVS and Hyperion range, it is easy to expand the capability of the system with the addition of other field-swappable Valeport sensors.”
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