Sino Land boss Daryl Ng trials mini-turbines in taps to generate electricity
Imagine if, every time you turned on a tap, the water drove a mini turbine to create electricity; developer aims to make it a commercial reality
Sino Land executive director Daryl Ng Win Kong wants to harness the energy on tap in the water supply to generate electricity.
Ng, the 35-year-old son of Sino Land chairman Robert Ng Chee Siong, hopes it may be feasible to install mini turbines in the mains water supply to a building so that when a tap is turned on, the flow of the water will turn the turbines and generate electricity.
That would produce "green" power, and, if it could be done on a big enough scale, it would reduce the amount of coal burned to generate power, and the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere.
The principle of using water in municipal water supply pipes to drive micro-turbines to generate electricity every time a tap is opened has been explored by engineers around the world for several years.
But although the technological know-how has existed for many years, it is not known if a mini-hydropower generator has been installed and is operating successfully.
Ng wants to see if that can be done on a commercial scale, and he has engaged global consulting engineering group Arup to conduct a feasibility study.