00:00 [ Music ]
00:10 >> It's not just the lights that brighten our city streets at night.
00:15 Electric power is so essential today, it's hard to imagine life without it.
00:20 Electricity is produced by a number of methods,
00:23 one of them being hydroelectric generation.
00:25 [ Music ]
00:29 Conventionally, a dam is built to hold a large reservoir of water.
00:32 The energy created by water falling from high to low levels turns the blades of a turbine.
00:38 This rotates a generator to produce electricity.
00:41 Recently, there's been a growing interest in smaller scale methods,
00:48 using slight differences in the levels of flowing water.
00:51 Underneath this bridge over a river in Tokyo,
00:55 a small scale hydroelectric generator has been installed.
00:59 Although the water drop is just one metre,
01:03 this generates enough power to light the bridge.
01:07 [ Music ]
01:12 Ena is a city in Gifu in central Japan.
01:15 Masaya Sumino, an engineer at a metalworking factory here,
01:21 has developed a revolutionary water power generator that's gaining international attention.
01:26 [ Music ]
01:30 This is Sumino's ultra small water power generator.
01:33 [ Music ]
01:38 A one metre by 28 centimetre casing encloses the spiral blades of the turbine.
01:43 [ Music ]
01:49 All flowing water has energy, and I always thought it was a shame
01:53 that we weren't fully using this resource.
01:55 That's what inspired me to come up with this concept for utilising unused energy from nature.
02:01 Weighing just 18 kilograms, this is the first ever generator of its kind
02:07 that can be easily carried by one person.
02:09 It's already being used in roadside irrigation channels to power street lights,
02:16 and for electrifying fences to protect farmland.
02:21 [ Music ]
02:27 To spread his message about water power, Sumino often gives presentations
02:31 to primary school children like these.
02:33 Today he'll show them how to generate electricity
02:37 from a small river in their school grounds.
02:40 [ Music ]
02:49 >> Okay, now I'm going to put it in the water.
02:51 His generator works even with the gentle flow of this tiny stream.
02:59 The spiral blades are angled so they rise slightly towards the upstream side.
03:07 A 15 centimetre high metal plate blocks the stream.
03:13 This makes the water run over the top of the plate and flow down through the spiral blades.
03:18 [ Music ]
03:24 The force of the water on the blades turns the turbine to generate electricity.
03:30 This concept works anywhere there's flowing water, even if it's very shallow.
03:34 [ Music ]
03:39 Three, two, one, now.
03:44 [ Applause ]
03:48 That was amazing.
03:49 Such a small machine and it made electricity.
03:53 In Japan, schools are often used as evacuation shelters during disasters.
03:58 This device could provide emergency power.
04:01 Sumino's generator promises to transform life in remote areas
04:07 of the world that still lack power.
04:10 [ Music ]
04:13 There are many places where individuals or whole areas have no access to electricity.
04:19 If we can provide them with the means to make their own power,
04:22 they'll be able to change their lives.
04:24 That's my hope.
04:27 An ultra small generator that could provide environmentally friendly electricity
04:32 for any place on earth where there's even a slight flow of water.
04:36 [ Music ]
04:39 [ Silence ]
04:45 [ Music ]
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