After having established that the area of Alpes-Maritimes is highly energy dependent and in keeping with its initiatives to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, the metropolitan authority of Nice Côte d'Azur wanted to make its water services self sufficient in energy.
Nice - France Using Hydraulic Energy to Produce Electricity.
Renewable energy - reclaiming the potential energy from a waterfall to produce electricity.
The Requirements of the Local Community
Veolia Water's Solution
Veolia Water proposed the installation of 4 micro-turbines on to the water supply system in order to convert potential energy into useful electrical energy. The raw water is in fact brought down from a mountain by a canal with ample hydraulic capacity and the main water production plant (Super Rimiez) is located on the hills of the town 280 m above sea level. The advantage of distributing the city's drinking water by means of a gravity system is that, as a consequence, there is high pressure (up to 17 bars) when the water enters the water supply system. This pressure can be recovered and converted into electrical energy.
The results
This solution for producing renewable energy should make it possible to recover more than 12 GWh of electricity a year i.e. approximately the average annual consumption of more than 3,000 French families*.
* The average consumption of a family of 4 is around 4 MW a year.