Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: Today's society is becoming more pressured to produce renewable energy, as some of the world's resources are becoming scarcer and the population is increasing. The push to find a new reliable eco-friendly energy source is becoming ever so relevant. Due to the high demand of electricity, the cost of power is expensive and the ability to access the resource is difficult for many poorer areas in the world. These third world areas are in desperate need of power to allow food and medical supplies to be stored, and as a result, distributed in the needed areas. \n \nPapua New Guinea which is located just north of Australia has some of the toughest terrain in the world and is rated high in the top 50 third world nations. It is the perfect location for a hydroelectric system. Micro hydroelectric generators are becoming more and more common in remote locations. The disadvantage to these systems is that specifically designed turbines are expensive and time consuming to design for the location. A solution to this problem is to implement an already designed centrifugal pump as a turbine. At the small cost of efficiency the use of a pump can produce a low cost and reliable energy source. \n \nThis unconventional solution has the ability to be applied to poorly developing countries such as Papua New Guinea to help achieve self-sufficient energy production. As a result, it would also have an impact upon improving the health and well-being of all of the local inhabitants.
Author: Nicholas Burton-Ree
Language: English
Subfield: Mechanical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Strong
OpenAlex ID: W1649802073