A big wave of mini-hydro projects

[Thom Little]

Propelled by high energy costs, federal incentives, and an eased licensing process, at least 104 projects in 29 states - with 2,400 megawatts of new capacity - have been granted "preliminary permits" by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which regulates hydropower development. Many other projects in the works have not yet been officially reported by FERC, observers say. The jolt in interest is lifting the long-languishing hopes of hydropower's true believers.

.......

About 4 in 5 projects on the books are tiny - producing less than 20 megawatts of power. But if all 104 projects now in the planning stages are built, they would contribute 2.4 gigawatts to generating capacity nationwide.

The potential exists for much more, say federal researchers. Of 80,000 existing dams, only about 2,500 generate electricity. Upgrading those hydropower dams could boost power by 4,300 megawatts. Retrofitting the most promising of the remaining 77,000 dams could generate as much as 17,000 megawatts, according to a recent US Department of Energy Report. Such a boost might reduce the need for future fossil-fuel or nuclear projects. Still, environmentalists are wary.

"We've heard through the grapevine that there is movement," says Robbin Marks, director of the hydropower reform campaign at American Rivers, an environmental group in Washington. "We don't want to see new hydro dams."



http://csmonitor.com/2005/1219/p03s02-sten.html

[tularetom]

1. CA's Central Valley seems to be ground zero for

these mini hydro plants. There are irrigation canals everyfuckingwhere and every canal has a vertical drop evry few miles. Irrigation distircts have figured out that each vertical drop is the potential source of some small amount of hydroelectric power but until recently the costs of building the plants couldn't be justified by the price they could get for the few measly megawatts each plant would generate. Now that electricity has gotten so costly, the plants have become cost effective. In actuality, these plants are less environmentally intrusive than damming the few free creeks and rivers that still exist in CA because the irrigation canals have already fucked up the environment and the plants really don't make matters much worse. On the other hand, I'm not sure how much of a dent they really make in filling our energy needs.

[AZCat]

2. The article doesn't say who will be responsible...

for construction and management. My boss's brother works for the Bureau of Reclamation - maybe I'll ask him today if his brother knows anything.