St. Lawrence River to become a power plant?

[ChrisDVD]

St. Lawrence River to become a power plant?

Tue Jul 27, 2:03 PM

By The Canadian Press

 

MONTREAL - The mighty St. Lawrence River will soon be home to a power-generating pilot project that could one day churn in rivers across Canada.

 

The company that builds the underwater river turbines says the test phase will start off small, producing enough energy to power 750 homes.

 

But RSW Inc. president Georges Dick says the technology has huge potential in Canada's biggest waterways, including the Mackenzie, Peace and Fraser rivers.

 

The federal and provincial governments are funding one-third of the $18 million project.

 

Federal Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis says it's a low-cost, renewable energy source that will create hundreds of jobs.

 

Paradis insists the spinning blades inside the three-metre-high turbines will not have an impact on underwater wildlife.

 

The pilot project will see two turbines plunked into water off the shores of Montreal in the coming weeks.

 

Quebec hopes to eventually use the technology to power its northern communities, which rely heavily on polluting diesel-fuelled generators.

[jesseps]

Interesting! I wish them the best of luck with this.

[Cyrus]

It would be a good place for making conventional hydro power, the problem is that you would flood Ville-Marie under 20 metres of water

 

I'm interested to see what they are thinking... I guess a "fan" type impeller placed perpendicular to flow, since a squirrel-cage typical turbine wouldn't work... the whole concept sounds really really weak, but traditional hydro power is mighty! Almost certainly it will still work way better than useless wind power and the pipe-dream solar power...

[Habsfan]

Let's hope they can make this work!