You don’t need a giant, environment-wrecking dam to capture the
energy of a river. That’s the premise Free Flow Power is trying
to build its business on, and the company said it now has a
project up and running on the Mississippi River that it believes
demonstrates the potential of hydrokinetic generation. Free
Flow’s low-key announcement – picked up by media in Boston,
where the company has one of three U.S. offices – said it began
operating the turbine on June 20 at Plaquemine, La., just south
of Baton Rouge. So far, so good, the company said. “The
equipment is handling the Mississippi River conditions without
power interruptions or degradation,” noted Ed Lovelace, Free
Flow chief technology officer. Free Flow said the turbine is
installed on a research surface platform that includes
monitoring equipment that measures stream velocity, electrical
current and voltage. “Performance to date has been consistent
with our design predictions, which makes it very competitive
with published data on similar devices be