My neighbor John works for the city and I apologize for not knowing which department. I think it is either Energy or Environmental Affairs. I tried looking it up but couldn’t find his name listed at CityofNo.
But anyway, he is leaving this week to go to Washington to meet with Energy Secretary Steven Chu and discuss placing tidal turbines in the river. The process was detailed in this Popular Mechanics article a while back.
Sounds like a great idea if it can be somewhat environmentally feasible.
Wish him luck!
Tidal Turbines? I think that the river has a constant flow of water in one direction and could easily provide hydroelectric power.
The difference from a dam would be that the turbines would operate at low speed like tidal turbines and but not reverse direction.
Possibly attaching them to the bridge supports to get them out into the current.
One problem will be to avoid them becoming a hazard to navigation. I always thought some kind of sluice system on the banks might make more sense, but it sufferers form low energy.
I’m going to try and get more info from him soon. As of now this is just what I’m hearing on the stoop.