The center’s February 2012 newsletter highlighted low-head projects in Peru, South Korea, Uganda, China, Scotland, Switzerland and Tanzania. In collaboration with the United Nations, China created the International Center on Small Hydropower to gather data and promote small hydro, and is seen as a global leader in its development. use the energy in flowing water to turn turbines that create electricity, leaving at least 54,000 (some suggest the number may be 80,000) unpowered. Only 2,500 or so of the existing dams in the U.S. “Folks working in this market say there is a lot of interest right now on the small hydro side.” “We have a chance to squeeze some new energy out of little spots,” says Matthew Nocella, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based National Hydropower Association. Energy developers are now eyeing large and small river systems, tidal basins and even big western irrigation ditches as sources of a less common but very promising approach to tapping the power of water: small hydro.ĭevelopers have focused on two broad types of small-hydro proposals: placing low-head hydro on existing locks and dams in rivers, and installing marine hydrokinetic turbines, which capture the energy of currents while being tethered to floors of rivers and tidal areas. Although most of the rivers best suited for large hydropower plants already have seen the installation of massive dams and turbines that use the power of trapped water gradually let loose to generate electricity, what’s left is still a pretty rich trove of potential. It represents a budding movement to begin tapping into the world’s most overlooked yet reliable power source - moving water. Anthony is the first major new hydroelectric project on the upper Mississippi in decades. Anthony Hydroelectric Project sits in a lock of an existing U.S. Built by Brookfield Renewable Energy Group and Nelson Energy, the Lower St. ApOn a fast-moving stretch of the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis, a 9.2-megawatt hydroelectric dam generates enough electricity to power 7,500 homes.
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