If my count is correct, six of the 20 navigation locks and dams on the Ohio River have hydroelectric plants: Hannibal, Belleville, Greenup, Markland and McAlpine. Four were built in the 1980s and 1990s. American Municipal Power recently began construction on one at Cannelton.
Ideas have been floated for using the Ohio River current to generate power without attaching a power plant to a dam. One of the more recent is by McGinnis Inc. of South Point OH.
According to records at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, McGinnis has filed applications to study the feasibility of three “hydrokinetic” generating facilities in the Ohio River below the Robert C. Byrd, Newburgh and McAlpine locks and dams. All information is copied and pasted from the FERC Web site.
At Robert C. Byrd (formerly Gallipolis):
The proposed Robert C. Byrd Project would be located just downstream of the Robert C. Byrd Lock and Dam in an area of the Ohio River approximately 9,500-feet-long and 1,100-feet-wide and would consist of: (1) a single barge suspending up to 10 axial flow turbine generators into the river with a total installed capacity of 350 kilowatts; (2) a new 300 to 8,000-foot-long, 13.5-kV transmission line; and (3) appurtenant facilities. The project would have an estimated average annual generation of 1,533 megawatt-hours.
At Newburgh:
The proposed project would consist of: (1) a 100 to 300-foot-long by 20 to 52-foot-wide barge spudded down to the riverbed; (2) 10 6-8-foot-long by 6-8-foot-diameter turbine-generators mounted in line along the side of the barge; (3) one armored, high-voltage cable transmitting the generated power to the existing transmission line located adjacent to the proposed project area; and (4) appurtenant facilities. The proposed project would generate about 1,533 megawatt-hours.
At McAlpine:
The proposed project would consist of: (1) a 100 to 300-foot-long by 20 to 52-foot-wide barge spudded down to the riverbed; (2) 10 6-8-foot-long by 6-8-foot-diameter turbine-generators mounted in line along the side of the barge; (3) one armored, high-voltage cable transmitting the generated power to the existing transmission line located adjacent to the proposed project area; and (4) appurtenant facilities. The proposed project would generate about 1,533 megawatt-hours.
Whether any of this is feasible I have no idea, of course. That’s what engineers are paid to decide. And the Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard will have to get involved, along with other federal agencies, as impacts on the environment, navigation, recreation and other uses are considered.
This is one of those times that I miss being a full-time newspaper person.
