Hydropower opportunities in the water industry
Water and wastewater treatment processes are energy intensive accounting for around 30 to 80 percent of the industry production cost. Given this background, the water companies agree on the need to identify cost effective and sustainable ways of producing energy to reduce its dependence on fossil fuel for energy generation, reduce its carbon emissions, ensure the security of its power supply and offset the increasingly energy cost. Microhydropower, a resource that is readily available at the door step of the water companies has been identified as the solution to a sustainable energy option for the industry. Nonetheless, there are no detailed options in the available literature of hydropower application to the water industry. This paper thus gives an overview of hydropower application options available to the water industry (water and wastewater treatment industry.