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Are water wheels/mills solarpunk? (Also solarpunk workshop design discussion) (self.technology)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by JacobCoffinWrites to c/technology

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I know dams can mess up habitats, cutting fish and eels off from their full range or from their spawn points. But I'm also a big fan of using energy in the form we receive it (use solar light/heat for machining with focusing mirrors and lenses, use kinetic energy from windmills or water wheels to drive tools industrial revolution style, skip the lossy conversion into electricity and back again. I've got a workshop design in mind, what can I do to make a water wheel more okay?

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[–] schmorpel 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Old water wheels did not dam up the entire river. A part of the river would be guided into a separate channel, where the waterwheel would be mounted. The remaining river would be undisturbed. I've seen this near a Portuguese river - not used anymore but I still met the old miller who had used it in her lifetime.

I also really love ram pumps, they can be installed in similar ways.

Old irrigation system use mad systems of channels to guide water along hillsides.

Might go into more detail later, need to tend to the animals.

[–] JacobCoffinWrites 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks! That would be a much better way to do things. In the woods around here it's easiest to find old mills because the ruins of their dams are still exposed in the rivers (celarholes are a close second) so I'd kind of built this assumption in my head that dams are the default way to build water pressure for a mill without realizing it. It seems like without that, small scale mills are a lot more reasonable for small off-grid projects. And thanks! Any info is appreciated, though I'll do research before starting a photobash.