San Juan de Plan is a town located in a mountain area of the Pyrenees Mountains (Spain). Its drinking water supply comes from a spring called the “Font Blanca”. The spring is at an altitude of 1485m and has a catchment box a little further down, at an altitude of 1300 meters. From said manhole the water is transported through a polyethylene pipe of 90mm diameter and 2.6 kilometers of length to the tank. The tank is in the upper area of the municipality at an altitude of 1,190 m. Flow rate is 5 liters/second and chlorine is added to the tank before distributing the water through the municipal network.
The water turbine has been installed in the transport pipe, a few meters before its arrival at the tank. Thanks to the water turbine at the entrance to the drinking water tank in San Juan de Plan (Spain), a power of 1.5kw is generated. This energy is obtained from the energy use of the difference in level between the collection break box and the tank. With this solution, the water continues flowing to the reservoir but passes the water through the water turbine to generate energy. In addition, the water turbine works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, which significantly increases its economic profitability. The electrical panel of the water turbine and the grid connection inverter have been installed in a recently built concrete cabinet fully integrated into the landscape.
Additionally, a bypass has been installed and is used only during turbine maintenance works. In this way it is achieved that the reservoir is always supplied, guaranteeing the supply of drinking water to the town. The energy generated by the water turbine at the entrance to the drinking water reservoir in San Juan de Plan (Spain) is used for self-consumption in the streetlights. In this way, it is possible to supply 100% renewable energy to the municipality’s public lighting system. In mountain towns such as San Juan de Plan there is a great energy potential in the filling pipes of the drinking water tanks. Normally the water is captured in high areas and later transported through pressure pipes to the tanks.
Installation date: February 2020