14 DAY TRIAL // There are dozens of sites like this throughout England – small hydroelectric plants, some more than 100 years old, that have been abandoned for more than 5 or 6 decades. Authorities now seem to have found a new use for them, namely that they can still produce renewable electricity, even though they've been dormant for so many years. One of these plants, Yorkshire Dales, is scheduled to go back on-line and produce some 510,000 kWh of energy each year.
Such usages for obsolete technologies draw attention to the fact that the future won't necessarily be shaped by new and state-of-the-art power plants, to use the latest technologies to produce clean energy and trap carbon underground. Instead, old physics principles, such as the Archimedean screws, can be used to create clean and renewable energy.
The Archimedean screw is a very simple concept – it refers to a screw being encased inside a cylinder. While this may not seem like much, it was this invention that allowed for the earliest irrigation systems to appear, some 2,300-2,300 years ago. The device was and still is primarily used to lift or pump water from a lower lake or pond to a higher elevation, where the liquid is needed.
Inside the old power plant, the screws will spin at great velocities, as river water passes through them heading down, instead of up. The kinetic energy the water will give off as it passes through the device will be captured by electrical turbines that will produce half a million of kWh annually. While this amount may seem small, experts argue that at least the plant is producing something, instead of just lying there.
Also, a simple calculation shows that the 50 or so abandoned hydroelectric plants in the UK could generate some 25 million kWh yearly, which is quite a bit. Environmentalists already expressed their approval of this idea, which literally creates energy out of nothing.