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How NuSTREEM’s Small Hydro Units Can Save Municipal Water Agencies Money
NuSTREEM's NuTURBINE is designed to harvest energy from water being piped from one location to another.
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uSTREEM is an innovative small-hydropowerunit manufacturer based in Connecticut. Its lowhead NuTURBINE can be inserted into existing municipal water systems to harvest the energy latent in the water flowing through a facility and convert it into electricity. In this interview, Kathy Bielert, NuSTREEM’s technical sales manager, tells Municipal Water Leader about the idea behind the company’s technology and why it should be of interest to all municipal water managers. Municipal Water Leader: Please tell our readers about NuSTREEM, its history, and its turbine products.
14 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | January 2021
municipalwaterleader.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF NUSTREEM.
Kathy Bielert: NuSTREEM is an innovative manufacturer of small hydroturbine equipment. We started designing a modular and intelligent hydroturbine over a decade ago. In 2014, NuSTREEM completed two projects: one 500‑kilowatt (kW) installation in Connecticut consisting of five 100 kW units and a 100 kW installation in Massachusetts. Both sites have been successfully running ever since.
Our equipment is designed to rapidly build a hydropower site that is economically feasible based on average energy prices. Our NuTURBINE is a low-head Kaplan turbine that operates with 8–40 feet of head. It is made in America and is loaded with proven, modern features to automate operation. This is a contemporary dual-regulated Kaplan design with electronically controlled, motor-drive-actuated wicket gates and runner blades. Although the NuTURBINE is based on the tried-and-true Kaplan-style turbine, NuSTREEM has a patented design variant that can take full advantage of current electronics technology and intelligent control capabilities. Our patented NuTECH controller ensures optimal hydropower system output by maximizing efficiency, regardless of the hydraulic or machine conditions. Last but not least, our NuCONTAINER uses an industry-standard shipping container modified to house a NuTURBINE and controls. The turbines arrive on site inside their permanent housing, ready for installation. The NuCONTAINER allows users to bypass many of the costly and time-consuming geotechnical and civil efforts that traditional hydropower sites require.
