2 replies to this topic

[Mith242]

A Massachusetts based company is looking into putting turbines on 55 locations along the Mississippi River, nine of them being near Arkansas.  The nine locations being from south to north; Anconia Point southeast of Lake Village Ark, Walker Bend southwest of Greenville Miss, Malone Field Light southeast of Rosedale Ark, Helena Reach northeast of Helena-West Helena, Ark, Ashley Point west of Tunica Miss, Hope Field Point near the I-40 bridge between West Memphis and Memphis, Plum Point south of Osceola Ark, Barfield Bend east-southeast of Blytheville Ark and Huffman Light near Huffman Ark.  Some people are skeptical of the idea.  They could take lots of damage from all the debris in the river, although the company says it's planned for that.  Barge operators don't seem to keen on the idea either.  Possibly because it means there will be more things for them to try to avoid.  The turbines would be placed on pylons.  In the deeper areas the would be placed vertically and in shallower areas they would be placed horizontally.  There would be 6-10 turbines a pylon.  Eventually 600 turbines could be placed along the Mississippi River.  Each turbine would produce 40 kilowatts with the whole project having a maximum potential for 7,200 megawatts with an overall average of 1,800 megawatts.  If it's successful I wonder if something similar could be done on the Arkansas River.

[cozmosis]

Mith242, on May 7 2009, 06:09 PM, said:

If it's successful I wonder if something similar could be done on the Arkansas River.

There is a constant flow on the Mississippi River. The Arkansas, at times, is more like a series of lakes separated by dams. I would think that would cause problems for a large operation such as this on the Arkansas... but I'm anything but a hydrologist.

[Mith242]

cozmosis, on May 8 2009, 01:52 PM, said:

There is a constant flow on the Mississippi River. The Arkansas, at times, is more like a series of lakes separated by dams. I would think that would cause problems for a large operation such as this on the Arkansas... but I'm anything but a hydrologist.

Good point.  I also wasn't sure if there was enough water volume to make it feasible as well.  I just find it interesting looking into other possibilities for electricity production.  Here in Arkansas you're somewhat limited.  Not enough sun for solar (unless you're talking about small scale for individual homes and such).  Wind power is also limited to at best some isolated parts of the Ozarks and Ouachitas.  Water power is probably what Arkansas has going for it the most.  But you don't see too many dams being built anymore.  So it might come down more to something like these turbines.  The only other option I'm seeing is the possibility of biofuels.  But that seems like it has a long way to come before that becomes more feasible.