Hydropower project could help stop climate change
“Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it,” Mark Twain once quipped.
Today we can swap out the word “weather” and replace it with “climate change.” Everyone complains about the effects of climate change — sea levels rising, droughts intensifying, air conditioners struggling to cope with the heat — but too few of us are taking action. The question of climate change isn’t up for debate anymore; it’s here and its effects can be seen in the profit and loss statements of every insurance company.
But what are we going to do about it? Climate change is a global problem, which means it requires a global solution, but that doesn’t negate a local government’s responsibility to act. When an opportunity to shift to a renewable energy source presents itself, it’s in everyone’s interest to make that change. Northampton County has been actively looking for these opportunities over the last five years, installing energy-efficient appliances and LED light fixtures in our buildings and mounting solar panels on the roof of the forensic center.
In 2018, the county took even bolder action, partnering with New England Hydropower
Co. to construct a noninvasive, low-head hydroelectric plant in Hugh Moore Park. Installing two StreamDiver turbines, which are safe for fish and other wildlife, will generate an estimated 4,8005000 megawatt hours per year, enough electricity to power 650 households.
This project will provide environmental, historical and educational benefits. Electricity produced with zero emissions would reduce air pollution and return the canal to its historical use as a generator of electricity. After its initial construction, turbines were installed at high points along the canal and the water moving through was used to power local community inns and the Locktender cottages. Some of the old utility poles are still standing, including at Hugh Moore Park.
This power plant would serve as a pilot project for more renewable energy projects. Success in Hugh Moore
Park would make it easier to expand low-head hydropower throughout the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania and the country.
Unfortunately, Easton has expressed reservations about signing a lease with New England Hydropower, a necessary step to begin construction. The company has a proven track record of working with municipalities, negotiating leases, easements and site-plan reviews for their projects in Connecticut and Rhode Island. An agreement with Easton would give it a place to produce clean, renewable power and relieve the city of the liability of maintaining the Chain Dam and the canal, saving Easton an estimated $35,000 per year.
The company would also fully restore and automate the sluice gates that control the flow of water and provide the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Museum with a dry dock to store its historically important barge in the winter months. The estimated $250,000 cost for the dock would ensure that the canal boat rides and history lessons popular with tourists and local schoolchildren continue far into the future.
This $10 million construction project would not only produce renewable energy, it would create good-paying local jobs. An estimated 20 full-time jobs would be created during construction, with two or three permanent jobs when the hydropower plant is operating.
Voith, the corporation that makes the StreamDiver turbines, has a flagship facility in York, so we would be working with a local company. StreamDiver technology is already in operation, with 29 turbines producing power worldwide and another 20 in construction or operation in the United States. Voith’s turbines are also being used in South America, Europe and Indonesia.
There’s also the matter of what taxpayers have already paid into this project. In 2018, the county made a commitment to a hydroelectric plant by agreeing to provide $1.5 million in local matching funds for an Alternative Clean Energy grant from the PA Department of Environmental Protection. The county and the state have already paid $286,000 each toward this development.
We knew when we signed up for this project that it would not be easy, and the pandemic introduced a number of hurdles we’ve had to overcome but, as
I’ve often said, Northampton County’s future is green. Bringing back renewable hydroelectric power plants to the region would be good for our economy, our environment and our future. I hope Easton works with us on this exciting opportunity to be the first community in Pennsylvania to return hydroelectric power plants to our dams, canals and rivers.
Electricity produced with zero emissions would reduce air pollution and return the canal to its historical use as a generator of electricity.