$3M federal grant to help center for river power

A $3 million federal economic stimulus grant will be used to establish a center for commercial development for turbines that can be placed in the Mississippi River and other powerful rivers to generate electricity.

Officials with Tulane University, which is guiding the River Sphere project, said the center could mark a big step forward in the science of hydrokinetics - using flowing water without a dam for generating electricity.

Calling the river one of Louisiana's best potential assets in alternative forms of power, Douglas Meffert, executive director of the project, said hydrokinetic power "is the sleeping giant of energy."

Using the river to generate power is well beyond the thinking stage.

Several companies have received preliminary permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to place turbines in the Mississippi and other rivers that would be turned by flowing water. Several different technologies are emerging to do that, such as totally underwater generation and turbines connected to barges on the surface that would do the generation.

Plans call for the turbines to be mounted on pylons below shipping lanes and attached to bridge abutments.

Forbes