Albany’s small hydropower plant has been shut down for more than a year, which I didn’t discover until I asked about it this week. And I doubt it will ever operate again.
Every time the bike and I climb up the steep Third Avenue Bridge from Bryant Way, I look off to my right to see if the Albany hydropower generator is turning. Lately it has been still, not moving at all.
Sunday afternoon found the bike and me once again at the gates of Albany’s historic Vine Street water treatment plant and hydropower generating station.
Albany’s small hydropower plant, restored in 2009 at a cost of about $2.2 million, was never going to justify the investment in terms of money. Now, rising costs due to more federal regulation are causing the city staff to consider shutting the operation down.
An Albany tidbit from the public works front: What’s that pipe doing in the Santiam Canal? It’s about to the carry as much of the canal water as it can, but that’s only temporary. The snapshot was taken Tuesday afternoon after a contractor had laid the 48-inch-diameter pipe from just above 12th Avenue to just […]
100 years of Albany hydro: Is this the end?
Albany’s small hydropower generator in the Vine Street water plant has never been a big factor in the energy picture, but lately it has played no role at all.
Tags: 500 KW generator, Albany hydro, Santiam Canal, Vine Street plant