The powerful flow of the Mississippi River, which brought destruction to scores living near its flooded banks this spring, is viewed by a new generation of energy entrepreneurs as a reliable alternative way to generate electricity. These developers aren’t planning giant concrete dams like the ones that brought electric lights to many Americans for the first time. Instead, their idea is to put turbines on the bottoms of rivers or mount them on barges to spin generators.
It’s all part of the emerging technology of hydrokinetics: using flowing water to generate power without dams. “If we’re going to control the cost of converting to new forms of energy, hydro has to be part of that equation,” says Jon Guidroz, project development director for Boston-based Free Flow Power, which wants to generate energy from the Mississippi River.
FFP is focusing on obtaining federal permits for 25 hydrokinetic projects along the lower Mississippi River between Kentucky and Louisiana. Sites were chosen based on flow volume, flow velocity and the proximity to transmission facilities and potential customers. At each site, hundreds of turbines on pylons at the bottom of the river would spin like propellers and transmit energy to the riverbank. Guidroz said FFP’s long-term goal is to operate turbines for utilities and for chemical industries along the river. The company began testing one in June at a Dow Chemical Co. plant in Plaquemine. The company says that in addition to private funding, it received a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Energy Department.
