Axial turbine A new axial turbine has been conceived, designed and developed in a project led by the Hydroelectricity group at the HES-SO Valais-Wallis School of Engineering.This turbine recovers the energy from existing infrastructures, in particular drinking water supply networks. The turbine comprises two counter-rotating wheels on each level which between them ‘harvest’ the pressure […]
Recycling snow in Verbier During the winter, ski resorts have to deal with impressive quantities of snow, removing them from roads and transporting them to set locations. Multiple truck journeys are made to transport the snow, which is neither recycled nor treated. The aim of this project is to recycle the roughly 100,000 tonnes of
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Flybotix The company Flybotix SA has come up with a clever way of inspecting water mains and modelling them in 3D. To do this, it uses a drone fitted with an HD thermal imaging camera and an LED light. The drone is designed to fly through large water pipes. Once its underground flight is complete,
ODILE Irrigating hay meadows is a considerable challenge for farmers in mountainous areas, who have to move hoses and sprinklers to multiple locations on their land, a laborious task that is costly in terms of both time and money. Kick-started by the BlueArk Challenge 2020, the ODILE project is a valuable decision-making tool for farmers.
HydroVision The water consumed in Switzerland comes from various sources and distributors do not have access to regular and systematic measurements. As a result, it is not possible to obtain a real-time ongoing overview of the quality of the drinking water in their networks. This situation makes it difficult to detect, react to and inform
Monitoring the flow rate of bisse irrigation channels The Valais’ bisse irrigation channels are part of its cultural heritage. In recent decades, the bisses, which have footpaths running alongside them, have become an increasingly important tourism asset for the canton. Conscious of the importance of the bisses to agriculture, nature, the landscape and tourism, the
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Managing sewage outside building zones Switzerland has an extensive sewage collection and treatment network that predominantly serves the population living in building zones. Outside these zones, and particularly in some of the country’s Alpine hamlets, many second homes discharge their sewage into individual septic tanks. But this solution is today no longer acceptable. In a
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