Baltimore’s Solar-Powered Water Wheel Can Devour 50,000 Pounds of Harbor Trash Every Day

Trash isn't a pretty sight, but Baltimore's new Water Wheel actually makes collecting garbage look cool and fun. Powered by 30 <a href="http://inhabitat.com/solar-power" target="_blank">solar panels</a> and the water current, the Water Wheel Trash Inceptor can remove a whopping 50,000 pounds of trash a day--a rate that the <a href="http://waterfrontpartnership.org" target="_blank">Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore</a> hopes will make the harbor swimmable by 2020. Designed by <a href="http://clearwatermills.com/" target="_blank">Clearwater Mills'</a> John Kellett and Daniel Chase, the solar-powered trash collector generates 2,500 watts of electricity a day, which is enough energy to power the average Maryland home.

After a successful prototype and securing the support of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, the world's first Water Wheel was constructed in just seven months with a crew of less than four men.

Excess solar power is stored in 24 batteries.

The white, sail fabric canopy helps the Water Wheel blend in with its neighbor, the Pier 6 stadium.

Two orange booms help funnel debris from the Jones Falls stream towards the Water Wheel.

Spring-loaded leaf rakes intercept the trash and push it onto a moving conveyer belt and then into a dumpster.

Once the dumpster is full, the dock is detached, hooked up to a boat, and then taken to a RESCO waste-to-energy plant, where the trash is incinerated and turned into electrical energy.

The solar-powered pumps move 20,000 gallons of water an hour onto the rotating waterwheel that turns the conveyer belt.

Clearwater Mills' John Kellet with the Water Wheel he invented with Daniel Chase.

The leaf rake and conveyer belt system was inspired by a hay conveyor.

OutBack Power FLEXmax solar charge controllers provide real time monitoring of the solar energy input and output.

The trash collector also removes organic waste, which if left to decompose, causes oxygen depletion and releases ammonia.

As a project of the Healthy Harbor Living Laboratory, the Water Wheel also serves to educate people about stormwater management and the Inner Harbor.

While the Water Wheel will be a permanent fixture of Baltimore for now, there are talks of adding another one to the mouth of Washington D.C.’s trash-clogged Anacostia River.