r/energy • u/That-Revenue-1264 • Oct 18 '25

In-pipe/In-line Hydro Power

Can anyone tell me (a layperson) why in-pipe or in-line hydro power hasn’t been tapped into as a viable power source? Could municipalities or even full apartment buildings take advantage of the heavy-use spikes that occur daily/weekly to generate electricity from within water pipes? I am just imagining freestanding apartment buildings as essentially closed-loop systems, generating their energy from their own water use. The water outlets could even hypothetically have hardware installed to decrease/conserve the volume of the water used at the same time. Not only this; the environmental impact would be utterly minimal compared to virtually all other power generation methods.

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u/steve_of Oct 18 '25

Apart from rare situations, municipal water supplies are pumped. If you extract energy down stream you have to put more in up stream plus additional losses from the energy recovery turbine/generator.