McGinnis Company offers barges for electric rivers
Hydro Green Energy’s 4-turbine river package
An Ohio company is seeking to anchor barges at 11 spots along the Ohio River, including Louisville, as part of a potential $22 million “green” initiative to turn river current into electrical current.
The barges, with submerged turbines, would each generate relatively little electricity — enough to power about 260 typical homes…
The Ohio River project, proposed by McGinnis Inc., of South Point, Ohio, would include one barge anchored just below the McAlpine dam in Louisville and near the locks in an area that isn’t used for navigation. The 10 other Ohio River sites also would be located just downstream from existing dams…
The McAlpine project, like its other McGinnis counterparts, would consist of a 100- to 300-foot barge, 20 to 52 feet wide, anchored by steel poles, according to documents filed with FERC.
Ten turbines about 7 feet wide would be mounted along the sides of the barge.
An armored high voltage line would run from the barge to an existing power line nearby, to plug into the electric grid…
“I can build these units myself. I can support these units myself,” he said.
McGinnis said he’s willing to invest as much as $2million developing each of the 11 stations, along with two more on the Kanawha River in West Virginia.
Yup. I still get pissed off about the fact that we could have been doing this for thirty years or so. Thank the candyass Blue Dog Democrats who thought the sun rose and set in Ronald Reagan’s butt for that hiatus in alternative energy experiments.
People like McGinnis have always had the smarts and experience to build projects like this. Given the chance – instead of government and corporate opposition.
