Hydropower in Cumberland on hold for now
CUMBERLAND — Local residents will have to wait until Oct. 9 to learn whether the town will be reviving hydropower along the Blackstone River in the School Street and Albion Road area.
The Zoning Board of Review had recently been set to consider a water-power generator proposed on the river below the Albion Dam by New England Hydropower Co., LLC, of Beverly, Mass., but postponed the review to Oct. 9 due to a lack of a quorum, according to the board’s chairman, John McCoy.
McCoy said the proposal has already been reviewed by the Planning Board at its August meeting and a favorable recommendation on the plan was forwarded to the zoners along with the company’s request for a special permit use as allowed under a recent amendment
allowing small hydroelectric generation facilities approved by the town council in January.
New England Hydropower is also seeking an eight-foot dimensional variance of the allowed side yard setback, which is 10 feet, according to its application.
The variance is needed to allow the location of the project’s proposed powerhouse adjacent to the river which will serve as its source of water flow. The proposed hydropower facilities would be located upstream on the Cumberland side of Albion Road, not far from the Blackstone River Bikeway and the Highland Falls condominiums in the former Albion Mill.
Although mills in the area were once powered by the waters of the Blackstone River either directly into their works or in part through electricity generation, hydropower is currently only generating electricity at small generating stations in Woonsocket, Pawtucket and Blackstone.
McCoy said the Albion Dam proposal would be the first new generator for Cumberland and would be made possible by the town’s change in zoning for small hydropower projects.
From the plans that have been submitted, McCoy said the proposed generator would be designed along the ancient “Archimedes screw” method for moving water.
“It is supposed to be environmentally friendly,” McCoy noted while adding that the zoners would take up review of the proposal at their upcoming meeting.
According to New England Hydropower’s website, the company is seeking to use updated Archimedes screw technology to turn water power into electricity at a number of locations around New England.
While used in the past to raise water for irrigation, a reversed Archimedes screw design is being used to power generators in Great Britain and European as they are turned by falling water, according to company.
There are hundreds of locations in New England where existing dams remain from past water power storage uses and in many cases those can be used for new electricity generating sites thanks to the new technology, according to New England Power.
In its application to Cumberland, the company stated “Hydropower was the engine of industrial development all along the Blackstone River for hundreds of years.”
The Blackstone Heritage Corridor, which celebrates the history of the Industrial Revolution in New England, “will be enhanced by the construction and operation of a small hydropower facility that celebrates the traditions of the surrounding area in an innovative, non-intrusive manner,” the company said.
The proposed power house, it noted, would also be located near the site of a past powerhouse at the Albion Dam when it contributed to the mill operations in the area.
The proposed generating facility would be located within the Blackstone Heritage Corridor on previously undeveloped land to which the applicant has obtained a permanent easement from Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management for construction and operation of the proposed project.