In continuation to the eco-friendly theme, I came up with this article. Now, I love fish, specially the ones having a good time in the water and also, support drawing power from alternate sources of energy. One of the popular sources is Hydro-power but it has its problem. One of the major problems is that building large dams leads to displacement of people and destroys the eco-system near the dam. This is highlighted by the Friends of Narmada in India.
Now, the Engineers with NatEl America, Grapevine, Texas have come up with a new design. A low height dam based on Beaver dams. And the good part is that they don’t cause much damage to migrating fishes.
In contrast, conventional hydro-power technologies often rely on the construction of tall dams that flood the area behind them. This displaces animals and people, and it degrades the surrounding ecosystem, said Abe Schneider, Daniel’s son and the company’s vice president of engineering.
The dam uses fixed-wing like structures which are found on air-planes to generate electricity instead of helicopter-like rotors used in the current dams. This allows the fish to pass without much damage.
The best part of the deal is that it can be added to thousands of existing low-head dams. So we just add to the existing structures and thus little environmental damage.
Filed under: bakkar
[...] For Gaia: Beaver Dams Inspire Fish-Friendly Hydro-power Design [...]