The UK locks themselves are water movement though, so if you wanted to power som... | Hacker News

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fragmede 14 days ago | parent | context | favorite | on: The Computer at the Bottom of a Canal

The UK locks themselves are water movement though, so if you wanted to power something for "free" on those, you'd attach it to there. Oh man did I love watching those as a kid. You wouldn't do a fan though, you'd have a line and a buoy and use the up and down motion to drive a linear electromagnetic generator to harvest energy.

fennecbutt 14 days ago [–]

Yeah but it's not really a lateral flow of water when the locks fill up and empty.

lexicality 13 days ago | [–]

you do get lateral flow up/downstream during filling and emptying, but it's generally considered rude to do it fast enough to cause turbulence

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