Earth Equity News

Competitive Costs Give Hydropower New Spark. By Paul Davidson, USAToday, October 28, 2008. "The Holtwood Hydroelectric Dam [in Pennsylvania] on the Susquehanna River here hasn't changed much since it cranked up in 1910... Workhorses like the 109-megawatt Holtwood, which powers 90,000 homes in the region, have been criticized by environmentalists for the hazard they present to fish. They've been nearly forgotten amid the rush to trendier forms of renewable energy, such as wind and solar. But hydropower -- the oldest and by far most widely used alternative energy -- is quietly making a comeback spurred by a scramble for clean energy and the high costs of fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. Pennsylvania Power and Light is spending $350 million to build a sleek new powerhouse at Holtwood, the first new hydroelectric plant in the East in two decades. It will house just two sets of larger turbines and generators but boast a capacity of 125 megawatts, enough to light 100,000 homes, thanks to new, more efficient technology. The addition is part of the nation's biggest hydropower expansion since the 1980s. Utilities are proposing more than 70 projects that would boost U.S. hydroelectric capacity by at least 11,000 megawatts, or 11%, over the next decade, according to MWH, a hydro engineering firm, and Hydro Review magazine... As recently as the 1940s, hydropower accounted for 42% of electricity production. But by the latter part of the century, developers had tapped the most mountainous regions -- many in the Northwest -- whose steep inclines supply the strongest river flows and permit more cost-efficient projects... Of the 80,000 U.S. dams, only 2,400 have hydro plants. Hydropower today provides 10% of U.S. electricity generation."