In the last month there have been several legal notices in the Paducah Sun Republican for an application for preliminary approval of a proposal to put hydro kinetic power generators in the Ohio River in our area. The company applying is called Free Flow Power http://www.free-flow-power.com/index.php?id=36 . I spoke with the dude listed in the legal notice as the contact for the company, Dan Irvin. The company is listed as being from Massachusettes.

Mr. Irvin said the preliminary proposal, if approved by FERC, gives them the exclusive right to this kind of power development if any is to be made in the parts of the rivers in which the application applies. Irvin said that the kind of power his company is interested in developing is termed "hydro-kinetics" or hydropower that doesn't involve damming a river or any other kind of obstruction. He explained to me what they are envisioning at this time is a series of turbine like generators that would be mounted on pilings that would still leave enough water above the until for navigation. Each hundred untils would require a transmission line, and there would have to be some kind of substation on the shore. He said that they were looking for existing industrial sites for this kind of development to avoid adverse environmental impacts.

Irvin said that FERC does not rules specific to hydro kinetic facilties, and that they have to comply with all the regulations that FERC has for building a dam. That is why all the preliminary legal notices. Irvin also said that if they can get approval, and then do the appropriate studies to determine the proper locations for such facilities, that they hope to eventually place nearly 2500 units in our area. That's a lot, especially considering that each 100 requires a transmission line. Do the Math.

Irvin also didn't know about the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and didn't know for sure whether or not the pools behind the hi-lift dams on the Ohio, like Smithland, carried enough current for good power generation. He said that they had an Indiana power utility interested in power they could generate, if they can jump through the regulatory hoops.

There are very sensitive endangered mussel beds in that part of the Ohio. Whether it would be too costly or not for them to jump through all the bureacratic hoops necessary is still up in the air. But, it has to be better than coal and nuclear, so I guess it's worth a look. But let's not kid ourselves. Without serious conservation measures, and a strong anti-waste campaign for electricity, we can switch to all kinds of different generation methods, but there is still going to be significant impacts. But, capturing the currents of large rivers has to be considered as at least as good a "bridge" to the future as T Boone Pickens self serving multi-million dollar ad campaign promoting natural gas, which he coincidentally owns most of. So, let's hear out FFP, and see what they have to say.