Tapping the Power of the Mighty Mississippi: Thousands of Hydrokinetic Turbines Could Generate 1600 MW
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 04. 3.08
Swing by the Mississippi River a few years from now, and you may be surprised to see hundreds of thousands of miniature electric turbines dotting the fast moving river's bed. All the electricity generated by this massive "in stream" hydrokinetic project - around 1,600-MW - would be enough to power up to 1.5 million homes, according to Daniel R. Irvin, the chief executive of Massachusetts startup Free Flow Power Corp.
The company's goal is to install several hundreds of thousands of turbines at 59 sites along the river; each turbine would be attached to pilings in the river bed and would be made of a lightweight composite material like carbon fiber. If all goes according to schedule, Irvin is confident his turbines will be ready to begin producing electricity by 2012.
Despite securing permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to study the sites, Free Flow Power is already facing some close scrutiny by environmental regulators and the Army Corps of Engineers, who have expressed concerns about the turbines' effects on river navigation and its wildlife - the pallid sturgeon, a species native to the Mississippi river basin, is endangered.
His other major concern will be one familiar to most renewable energy enthusiasts: cost. Though he didn't disclose any specific figures, Irvin said his project would quickly be able to generate electricity at a price competitive with that of coal- and natural gas-fired plants.
Barring any unforeseen effects on the river's ecology, this seems like a great way to take advantage of one of the best (and plentiful) sources of renewable energy.
Image courtesy of cbanck via flickr
Via ::redOrbit: Startup Seeks to Tap the Mississippi River for Power (news website)
See also: ::Riding the Mississippi by Electric Bike, ::Sustainable and Sound Infrastructure Now.
As sure as I live and breathe, that photo is not the Mississippi River - it's the bridge in Audubon Park, New Orleans. Lovely, either way. And the hydrokinetic installation sounds like a no-brainer.
Here in Québec we are using Hydro-electricity, and for that it is great.
My concern about this methode is the natural balance of the ecology/wildlife. Research should be made all the way of the river to make sure that the projet does not affect the flow nore the water height... atleast not by too much (but what is enought? )
I do not live arround the area, but something should be considered: the houses and/or poeples land... Will it be affected too?
I only have a short time to write... Got to get back to "intervention messures" nature* school course.
Hi, who is developing that kind of solution? Could it be available for other countries?
how does such a project affect aquatic life? If these turbines are going to be blanketing the bottom of the river in ecological hotspots then this doesn't sound like a good idea at all.
I would imagine they're using something 'like' the Jack Rabbit Turbine or the AmpAir. The former is a small unit consisting of a 12.5" dia. propeller connected to a generator that is suspended in faster flowing part of a river or tidal flow. In a 5 mph current, 200,000 of these would produce about 16.8 MW. Seems like they should use fewer but larger units since the majority of the costs would be for siting, installation, and maintenance.
... and no, they do not spin very fast, so the "Cuisinart effect" is infinitesimal. I would imagine it only applies in storm situations, and then only to the injured or sick.
Where is Verdant on this?