Rainwater is still the best source of drinking water. The canal would provide water for irrigation, toilets, animals and turbines.
If you build it properly, what you get is a long, very narrow lake that only flows when water is taken out at one end. It could be kept full by weirs across small rivers, very much like the canals in England. (see Horseshoe Falls in Llangollan)
Individual homesteads would have a small penstock (say 50mm to 80mm ABS pipe) running from the canal to the house, where a small Pelton hydro generator (http://www.rpc.com.au/pdf/hyd-200.pdf) would supply power, and the fall from the canal would give the house pressurized raw water.
In areas with a concentration of houses, multiple large (>100mm ABS pipe) penstocks could feed a large Pelton hydro station (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelton_wheel) to generate bulk power. Hydro stations are a constant drain on the water supply, so a load monitoring system would shut down most of the penstocks in the big station, leaving just enough open to keep it "idling" during times of low load (eg at night)
By the way: Septic systems (http://www.biomax.com.au/products.htm) suitable to irrigation.
The only problem I see with the pelton design is that it needs a fairly high head, on the order of a minimum of 15 meters or better. That might not be possible for all applications...
I suspect that what will happen is a at first we'd deploy pre-built PV solar arrays, then build smaller applications like that one in the pdf file [if only because it's easily shipped out.] like you said, followed by a home built larger central pelton design utilising local materials. [in the story there's this mothballed airfield complete with an aircraft boneyard.] The final step in the story version of course would be to expand the pre-existing geo-thermal steam turbines.
I like the idea of tying the septic and irrigation systems together though.
I know, that's what gets me about all this talk about converting our tech base to non-oil dependent, non-polluting green tech. Those on the nay-saying side of the argument talk about having to develop new technologies... and yet, there's all this tech we already have that if applied the right way, could do the job.
Mind you, a zero-point energy system would be nice too!
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Re: Geektopia idea
If you build it properly, what you get is a long, very narrow lake that only flows when water is taken out at one end. It could be kept full by weirs across small rivers, very much like the canals in England. (see Horseshoe Falls in Llangollan)
Individual homesteads would have a small penstock (say 50mm to 80mm ABS pipe) running from the canal to the house, where a small Pelton hydro generator (http://www.rpc.com.au/pdf/hyd-200.pdf) would supply power, and the fall from the canal would give the house pressurized raw water.
In areas with a concentration of houses, multiple large (>100mm ABS pipe) penstocks could feed a large Pelton hydro station (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelton_wheel) to generate bulk power. Hydro stations are a constant drain on the water supply, so a load monitoring system would shut down most of the penstocks in the big station, leaving just enough open to keep it "idling" during times of low load (eg at night)
By the way: Septic systems (http://www.biomax.com.au/products.htm) suitable to irrigation.
Re: Geektopia idea
I suspect that what will happen is a at first we'd deploy pre-built PV solar arrays, then build smaller applications like that one in the pdf file [if only because it's easily shipped out.] like you said, followed by a home built larger central pelton design utilising local materials. [in the story there's this mothballed airfield complete with an aircraft boneyard.] The final step in the story version of course would be to expand the pre-existing geo-thermal steam turbines.
I like the idea of tying the septic and irrigation systems together though.
Re: Geektopia idea
Re: Geektopia idea
and yet, there's all this tech we already have that if applied the right way, could do the job.
Mind you, a zero-point energy system would be nice too!
Re: Geektopia idea