For the City of Watervliet that is . . .
Watervliet has applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build what it estimates will be an $8 million plant. It has applied to the state for $12.5 million in federal stimulus money, but there has been no action on the request yet, according to Gleason.Isn't it embarrassing that Rome isn't doing this? Or Oneida County??
The project would include the existing 1,016-foot long, 76-foot high dam owned by the state Canal Corp., Lake Delta’s existing 2,700-acre impoundment, a proposed powerhouse containing two generators with a total capacity of 5 megawatts, a proposed 1,000-foot long, 13.2-kilovolt underground generator lead, and appurtenant facilities.
The capacity of 5 megawatts is the maximum amount of energy that can be generated at any one time. That’s enough to power 5,000 homes.
4 comments:
Not really.
This has been studied over and over by various municipalities, most recently to include the Town of Trenton. All have found that there is not enough flow through the dam to make production of electricity cost effective. If Watervliet wants to waste their time and hundreds of thousands of dollars to find out the same, so be it.
Anonymous, Would you please supply links to the tests that you are referring to? I, and I suspect that many of the other blog readers would fancy reviewing them.
Thank You.
Having grown up going to Lake Delta from the time I was a kid I would have to say that it would be a good source for hydroelectric power for about four to six months a year.
It all depends on how much water the Canal Corp. needs to drain from Delta to feed the New Erie Canal.
The dam/lake was built as a feeder for the NYS Canal System and is subject to DOT control. This makes power generation an on and off situation for whoever tries
to harness it.
If you travel to the back sets of the lake late in the season you will see that there is very little water to let for power generation.
I have actually walked among the foundations of the village of Delta when the water was low in the autumn.
I'm not pooh-poohing the idea of local generation of power but there is a reason local gov'ts have avoided this deal.
Perhaps the folks in Watervliet will learn the same lesson or maybe we'll learn a lesson from them.
One would think in the case of Watervaliet, which is located on the banks of the Hudson, that they might look in their own front yard for enough flow to generate power without looking at a small impoundment like Delta Lake. Having fished Lake Delta with a depth finder, I know for a fact that the deep water channel and deep water basin of the lake is very limited and would never support a power plant without draining the lake to ridiculously low levels. Delta is a very shallow lake for the most part.
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