ISRAEL: Companies make water thrift easier, with a drone that reads water meters and a turbine that generates electricity from inside pipes

Record ID: 396736

  • Title: ISRAEL: Companies make water thrift easier, with a drone that reads water meters and a turbine that generates electricity from inside pipes
  • Date: 21st October 2009
  • Summary: HAVAT RONIT, ISRAEL (OCTOBER 22, 2009) (REUTERS) MAN LAUNCHING DRONE WHICH CAN READ WATER METERS LOCATED ON GROUND VARIOUS OF DRONE FLYING MAN WATCHING LAPTOP MONITOR, USING STICK TO CONTROL DRONE MAN HOLDING STICK VIDEO FOOTAGE ON LAPTOP MONITOR, AS SEEN FROM FLYING DRONE VIDEO FOOTAGE OF HOUSES ON LAPTOP MONITOR, AS SEEN FROM FLYING DRONE WATER METERS, WHICH TRANS
  • Embargoed: 5th November 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Environment / Natural World,Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVADIQT5AOZGPGKRY9030VT88N8G
  • Story Text: Israeli water companies will unveil next month new technologies aimed at plugging the globe's leaky pipes and saving utilities around the world billions of dollars in wasted water each year.
    They will present their latest systems -- including a drone that reads water meters and a turbine that generates electricity from inside pipes -- at a conference in Tel Aviv and try to live up to their reputation of being global leaders in the field.
    Israel is two-thirds desert and water concerns affect political and security decision making at the highest levels. For decades companies here developed water technologies for domestic use and less for foreign markets.
    But with efforts now being focused abroad, Israel set a goal of exporting $2.5 billion annually in water technology by 2011, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
    One of the keys to detecting, and then plugging, leaks is getting real-time data from water meters in the field. For years monitoring was done by a person stopping by each meter and jotting down the information. This can take months.
    Many meters are now equipped with transmitters and a car driving in the vicinity can receive the data. But hours pass between the readings, so the information is not accurate.
    Last week, Israel's Arad Group launched the first fly-by system that they say will give the world's utilities and farmers an instant reading and alert to even the smallest leaks.
    Arad sold over $100 million in water meters last year and said it was just hired to supply all the city of Mumbai by 2012.
    Outside a small town near Tel Aviv, Arad's drone with a yard (metre) wingspan collected data from hundreds of gauges within minutes during its maiden flight 300 yards above ground.
    The drone weighs about 2 pounds (1 kg) and flies on auto-pilot, receiving signals from up to a mile (1.6 km) away.
    A single technician with a laptop monitored the flight from below and received an instant picture of the town's system, including a house with what he said was a leaky toilet.
    The only other way to receive such a quick, accurate reading is to build an infrastructure of antennae and repeaters, said Dan Winter, CEO of Arad Technologies. But that would take time and a large initial investment.
    "With our system, in less than ten minutes, you pick up the vehicle (referring to the drone), it flies, comes back and gives you complete reading of all your water net. This enables you to balance your water net. And if you're looking from perspective of return of investment, the first investment is almost the same," Winter said, adding that a balanced water network would save Tel Aviv about $2 million each year.
    He also said that the idea to develop the fly-by system came from its military applications.
    "The idea or the concept of the fly-by came from the army. The army is using inhuman (unmanned) vehicles for military applications. We came to the idea - why to spend all this effort only on violence, let's use it for good reasons and use if for water," he said.
    Arad's fly-by system, which includes three drones and software, costs about $100,000. The first shipment will be sent to a town in Texas next month, Winter said.
    While Arad's system helps locate the water leaks, Israeli start-up "Leviathan Energy" developed an in-pipe turbine that reduces pressures to prevent leaks.
    Several months ago, Israel's national water company, "Mekorot", installed its first in-pipe hydroelectric turbine, developed by "Leviathan energy", at a site which supplies water to a village near Jerusalem. Up until recently, the water tower in the site, which is far from the energy grid, was powered by solar panels.
    Now, the water that flows through the 4-inch (10 cm) pipes provides the Kw of electricity needed to maintain operations.
    Hydroelectricity is the most widely used form of renewable energy globally, but it usually comes from larger water sources.
    Leviathan has yet to mass manufacture its turbine, but company CEO Gadi Hareli said they have received their first order for a number of units to be installed in Africa through a European company, with a letter of intent to buy 200 more.
    The system, which varies in size depending on the pipes and customer needs, costs about $2,000 per Kw generated, Hareli said. It can also be used in large factories with vast piping.
    Gideon Alkan, an engineer at "Mekorot", said the turbine could power off-grid locations as as well as sell electricity back to the grid. Alkan did not say if Mekorot would be installing the Leviathan turbine in more of its stations.
    "That's one of the ways to break water pressure and get electricity. If you've got electricity in the area, you could break the water pressure and sell electricity, sell energy to the electric company, or to any consumer," Alkan said.
    Hareli the technology is also an "excellent solution" for agriculture.
    "This also applies for farmers, agriculture. You know, a lot of...massive pipes going all around without the availability of electricity, with the need to provide power to measuring equipment, alarm equipment, valve control and so on, this would be an excellent solution for them," Hareli said.
    Water leakage is one of the biggest problems facing the world today, experts say. A World Bank study showed non-revenue water, a term for water lost in the system before it reaches the customer, costs utilities at least $14 billion worldwide every year. Most of that is from leaky pipes and poor maintenance.
    In developing countries alone 12 billion gallons (45 million cubic metres) of water are lost daily, enough to serve nearly 200 million people, the study said.
    The American Society of Civil Engineers gave U.S. drinking water systems an almost failing grade in 2009, with 8 billion gallons (30 million cubic metres) lost in leaks each day.
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