The Delhi Jal Board has commissioned the first ever hydropower plant in the city, which will use falling water from a treated sewage effluent pipe to spin its turbine rather than the more traditional hydroelectric model of harvesting the energy of running water. The new plant, in east Delhi, will be built onto an existing sewage treatment plant at Chilla and is estimated to produce 20,000 kWh of electricity annually. Recapturing some of the energy in flowing water that is generated by existing processes, such as municipal water supplies, is a non-traditional step for hydropower, and cities such as Portland, in the United States, have begun experimenting with this sort of smart water pipe infrastructure.
