Cadiz Inc. and Lucid Energy Inc have announced plans to install a LucidPipe Power System in Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery & Storage Project's planned 43-mile water conveyance pipeline, creating power for the Arizona & California Railroad Company (ARZC).
"We continue to look for ways to innovate and accomplish our Project objectives in an environmentally benign way," said Scott Slater, Cadiz President and CEO. "With the advantage of the LucidPipe Power system, we found our answer to the question of how we would provide power to meet ARZC's requests for power with a green, efficient power source."
With the objective of minimizing and potentially avoiding adverse environmental impacts, in 2008, Cadiz leased a portion of the ARZC Railroad Right-of-way (ROW) to construct a 43-mile pipeline within this existing transportation corridor. Cadiz's proposal to utilize the ROW is currently under review by the United States Bureau of Land Management. An average of approximately 50,000 acre-feet of water per year will be conveyed through this pipeline via gravity flow downhill to the Colorado River Aqueduct, a main conduit for water distribution in southern California. As a condition of making available its ROW for the Cadiz Water Project, the ARZC required that Cadiz Inc. provide certain improvements in furtherance of railroad purposes for the benefit of the railroad, including making power available to ARZC.
The ARZC operates a shortline railroad that originates in Cadiz, California and runs to Matthie, Arizona near Phoenix. Due to the remote nature of sections of the ARZC route, the railroad requires cost-effective and routine access to power for its operations, including potential transloading at a siding location in Rice, California. Access to electric power for lighting, refrigeration and heating would allow for an expanded transloading operation at this location. By installing in-line power turbines in the Cadiz Water Project pipeline as proposed, the pipeline can generate low-cost, renewable energy and meet ARZC's local business objectives.
"The Cadiz Project will provide critical benefits to our operation and provide us with a valuable and unique opportunity to enhance our rail line," said Brad Ovitt, President of Arizona & California Railroad Company. "This innovative hydropower technology will provide a great benefit that we could not access but for the existence of the Cadiz pipeline."
LucidPipe is a patented, in-pipe turbine generator that captures the energy of moving water inside large pipelines and converts it to a continuous source of low-cost electricity.
"There are thousands of miles of gravity fed water pipelines across our country that could make use of our unique hydropower technology without harm to the environment," said Gregg Semler, president and CEO of Lucid Energy. "LucidPipe generates baseload energy with no carbon emissions and no disruption to pipeline operations, providing clean, eco-friendly power in the truest sense of the word. We are excited to be able to collaborate with Cadiz in this green power venture."
LucidPipe turbines have already been successfully deployed in the United States to generate power. In January 2015, a four-turbine, 200 kW LucidPipe Power System came online in Portland, Oregon. The system, which is installed in a Portland Water Bureau pipeline, will generate an average of 1100MWh/yr. This was the first project in the US to secure a 20-year power purchase agreement for in-pipe hydropower in a municipal water pipeline, paving the way for similar financing to be available to other municipalities around the country. Riverside Public Utilities in California was the site of Lucid Energy's first commercial LucidPipe installation. The single 42" turbine system has operated continuously for three years.
