A New Look at Hydropower

fedgazette Page 13 NINTH DISTRICT FEATURE OCTOBER 2 01 1 Brookfield Renewable Power’s $35 million project on Lower St. Anthony Lock and Dam near down - town Minneapolis involved installing 16 turbines in an auxiliary lock next to the shipping channel. Power from the project can provide electricity for as many as 7,500 homes. A new look at hydropower Thanks to new technology and recent tax incentives, new energy proposals are coming to district rivers By FRANK JOSSI has never been much of a hydropower renewable energy—is also creating ing dam infrastructure to capture water Contributing Writer producer, especially compared with the renewed interest in this old-form power energy at five locks and dams (numbers Colorado, Missouri and Columbia rivers. source. Montana, for example, has 12 3, 4, 6, 7 and 9) between Red Wing, Call it a return to renewable roots. But spurred by aggressive renewable proposed and active projects involving Minn., and Lynxville, Wis., that will gen - Hydropower has been around long energy tax credits and new hydropower dam-and-turbine hydropower on rivers. erate more than 51 megawatts (MW). before the words “renewable energy” technology, a handful of companies have And that’s not all that’s happening became a political lightning rod in the filed plans to transform the lock-and- The Ol’ Miss on the river. Free Flow has proposed energy industry. But over the years, pro - dam system on the Upper Mississippi projects using the same technology for ponents of hydropower have watched it from Minneapolis to Rock Island, Ill., The main player on the Upper dams at Coon Rapids, Minn. (8MW) become a stepchild to sun-absorbing into a small powerhouse of hydro. There Mississippi, Boston-based Free Flow and at Genoa, Wis. (10 MW). Hydro solar panels and spinning windmills. are similar plans for several other lock- Power, has several projects at various Green Energy is working on a similar But thanks to new technology and new and-dam rivers throughout the country, stages of the approval process with the plan at a Red Wing, Minn., lock and applications of old ideas—and tax incen - including the Fox in eastern Wisconsin. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission dam (4MW). And in downtown tives for both—hydropower is again being Though traditional dam-and-turbine (FERC) to develop hydropower at lock- Minneapolis, Crown Hydro has pro - talked about, as proponents argue that hydropower has become somewhat and-dam systems in the U.S. Army Corps posed to divert part of the river to an thousands of dams could be retrofitted to passé over the years because of environ - of Engineers St. Paul District. The com - underground tunnel to create 1.7 MW produce small-batch electricity. mental protests, its relative efficiency— pany has several approaches, but the fun - of renewable power, but has run into a The Mississippi River, for example, especially compared with other forms of damental idea attaches turbines to exist - storm of opposition. Continued on page 14 fedgazette Page 14 NINTH DISTRICT FEATURE OCTOBER 2 01 1 Hydropower from page 13 The full-scale potential of such proj - With many existing dams at ity, but is the only source of hydropower ects is modest; the Upper Mississippi in North Dakota. Other rivers in that state proposals alone could add close to 100 simply don’t have the flow to produce MW, give or take, to the energy grid, or the end of their design cycle, it’s much energy or do not have a lock-and- a tenth of the power of Xcel’s Prairie dam system that could add hydro, accord - Island nuclear plant, and enough to estimated that the rehabilitation ing to Mike Diller, director of economic power about 75,000 homes for a year. regulation at the North Dakota Public Despite all the FERC filings and grand of dams with the latest designs Service Commission. designs, the only project to reach South Dakota has four major dams on fruition is Brookfield Renewable the Missouri River, one reason that hydro Power’s 10 MW project near downtown and technology could increase generates almost half of the state’s elec - Minneapolis at the Lower St. Anthony tricity. But the state otherwise has few Falls Lock and Dam, which recently power output at these same dams untapped hydro assets. “The flows on our began producing power. rivers vary dramatically—in spring you But the new proposals have other have good flows; in summer not much is advantages. Dams have been heavily crit - by 20 percent or more. happening,” said Chris Nelson, vice chair icized for producing environmental of the Public Utilities Commission. debacles, but there seems to be no great opposition to the lock-and-dam propos - Follow the money als at this time. Rupak Thapaliya, nation - al coordinator for the Hydropower Relatively new federal incentives might Reform Coalition in Washington, D.C., change the equation a bit. In 2005 and said the proposals he’s seen are “relative - 2008, production tax credits were ly benign” since they build off existing extended to hydropower developers to infrastructure that has no chance of encourage them to improve existing being removed as long as shipping facilities, add hydro to nonpowered remains viable on a river. And as energy dams and build hydrokinetic power in companies and the public alike seek rivers and oceans that takes advantage more renewable energy, the Mississippi of constantly moving water to spin sub - and other rivers in the Ninth District not merged turbines. yet tapped for much hydro are likely to Through the energy investment tax see more attention. credit, hydro and other energy develop - “We’re seeing hydropower included ers write off 30 percent of the cost of a more and more in both state and feder - project. And since developers may want al incentives, whether that be for state that in the form of cash, rather than a renewable energy standards or federal write-off, a Treasury Department pro - tax incentives like the production tax gram allows them to get a direct grant credit,” said Jeff Leahey, the National from the federal government, said the Hydropower Association (NHA) direc - NHA’s Leahey. tor of government affairs. “Those are That’s not all. FERC has been providing incentives for people to look encouraging “small hydro”—defined as at new developments.” less than 5 MW—by streamlining the Hydropower supplies 7 percent of permitting process and dedicating staff total annual electricity generation, but to answer inquiries about it. In a speech two-thirds of the nation’s renewable last year before the U.S. House of electricity, the result of its efficiency in Representatives, FERC’s director of generating electricity compared with energy projects, Jeff Wright, said that other renewables. Jon Guidroz, Free “small hydropower is an important part Flow’s director of project development, of the nation’s energy mix, and offers said water is 800 times more dense and the potential to add a substantial renew - carries 26 times the force of air. able, flexible capacity.” In fact, some hydro plants generate Mark Stover, Hydro Green’s vice electricity more efficiently than even president of corporate affairs and the coal, evident in the average cost per architect of many of the tax credits as kilowatt for each. Reports from the the former lobbyist for the NHA, said Wisconsin Valley Improvement Co., the U.S. Department of Energy, con - million to upgrade Rainbow Dam at one of the primary challenges for which helps operate 25 hydro plants on cluded that by 2025, there could be Great Falls, which will increase its cur - hydro in rivers like the Mississippi is the Wisconsin River for 10 utilities, show 60,000 MW of additional capacity across rent 36 MW of production by 70 percent. attempting to capture energy in low- that hydropower there is produced for the country, enough to power tens of But as much as a third to one-half of head settings. Advocates of evolving less than one cent per kilowatt hour, millions of homes. The added capacity that potential new capacity comes sim - low-head technology say the approach half the cost of nuclear and one-third comes from a variety of sources, includ - ply from adding turbines to dams that allows for energy capture without hav - the cost of fossil fuel. Other reports ing in-stream hydrokinetics, which fea - currently generate no power, and that’s ing to create lakes and change the basic show similar results. tures turbines underwater capturing also where new technology comes into contours of rivers. wave energy, according to Leahey. play. Most dams in place today do not The energy created is modest, but New spin on an old idea The majority of the additional gener - generate power, and that’s because they could be widely applied; only about 3 ation, however, comes from doing more suffer from “low head”—when the percent of the nation’s 82,000 dams cur - Despite that efficiency advantage, envi - with the infrastructure in place. With height of a river above and below a rently produce any power, and about ronmental concerns and protests have many existing dams at the end of their dam or lock is less than about 30 feet; half of those nonproducing dams are at halted any new large-scale dam projects design cycle, it’s estimated that the reha - the lower the drop, the less energy that least 25 feet in height, according to the for decades. Still, many believe there is bilitation of dams with the latest designs can be produced. National Inventory of Dams, compiled potential for significantly more and technology could increase power The Garrison Dam over the Missouri by the U.S.

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