Report says more power can be generated from current facilities
Farm and Ranch April 8, 2011 The U.S. Department of the Interior recently released the results of an internal study that shows the department could generate up to one million megawatt hours of electricity annually and create jobs by adding hydropower capacity at 70 of its existing facilities. Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, Anne Castle, says the additional capacity could power 85-thousand homes annually and create about 12-hundred jobs. Castle: “The report demonstrates that only can we increase hydro power production without building new dams, we can also help the economy and provide jobs while doing it. Clean energy sources like hydropower deliver significant economic benefits as well as environmental ones.” The report studied 530 sites throughout the Bureau of Reclamation’s jurisdiction, including dams, diversion structures and some canals and tunnels. Of those sites the assessment made a preliminary identification of 70 facilities with the most potential to add hydropower. They are located in 14 western states. Colorado, Utah, Montana, Texas and Arizona have the most hydropower potential but there is also potential in California, Oregon, Idaho and Washington. Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor says that for many of the sites, hydropower development would be conducted under a “Lease of Power Privilege Agreement” through which a non-federal entity is given a contractual right for up to 40 years to use a Reclamation facility for electric power generation. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net. ? ?
