TWO HYDROELECTRIC PLANTS PROPOSED
Mike McCagg
ccSCOOP News
02-17-10 - 9:25 a.m. - Local enterprise is answering the call for alternative sources of energy with two hydroelectric plants proposed for the neighboring towns of Stockport and Stuyvesant.
A proposal surfaced last month to construct a hydroelectric plant along Claverack Creek in the Stockport hamlet of Stottville. The project follows a proposal by Albany Engineering Corporation to construct a power plant at Stuyvesant Falls, revitalizing a plant that has been idle for decades. That proposal would harness the power of the Kinderhook Creek to produce 7,000 kilowatt hours of electricity— enough to power about 2,000 homes.
The Stockport plant, proposed by Claverack Creek LLC, would produce 450 kilowatt hours at a plant more than a century old along Claverack Creek in Stottville, town officials said. |
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Stuyvesant Falls |
Albany Engineering's Jim Besha told ccSCOOP last week that a plan to have the Stuyvesant Falls plant, which will be operated in conjunction with the Town of Stuyvesant, operational by the end of 2010 was "overly optimistic." “We were hoping for the end of this year, but . . . it’s going to be six to twelve months before we are complete,” said Besha.
He said that work continues inside the powerhouse of the facility and will move outside once weather permits. "Everything is ready to go. . . . It’s just going to take a little longer than we first expected,” Besha said.
While Besha has obtained all of the federal and local permits necessary to begin operation, Claverack Creek LLC’s proposal on just beginning, and no permits have been obtained, officials said.
The two proposed hydroelectric plants are not related and the two companies “have no affiliation whatsoever,” Besha said. Albany Engineering and Stuyvesant were granted a license for the facility from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2003 when Albany Engineering sought to buy the idle plant. Negotiations with the owner, Erie Boulevard Hydropower LP, broke down, and the Town of Stuyvesant eventually claimed the building through eminent domain. Power from the Stuyvesant plant and the Stockport plant will be sold into the grid. Through an agreement with Albany Engineering, the Town of Stuyvesant will receive a share of the revenue from the plant in in Stuyvesant Falls. There is no such agreement for the Stockport plant.
The Stuyvesant Falls plant has already had two lives. It was first constructed in 1899 to supply power for the trolley service that ran from Albany to Hudson. In 1942, the operation was expanded to meet the growing demand for electricity that resulted in part from World War II. The Stockport proposal would revitalize a hydroelectric facility that is believed to be the oldest in the United States. According to the not-for-profit Renewable Energy Life, the New World Encyclopedia, and other sources, the turbine at the Stottville power plant was originally constructed in 1869 and installed in 1871. According to Renewable Energy Life, “it is one of the earliest water wheel installations in the United States to generate electricity.”
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