Developers: Underground Hydropower is Coming to Essex County
By Zach Hirsch April 15, 2015
Apr 15, 2015 — A decades-old proposal for an underground hydroelectric station in Essex County, New York, could become a reality soon.
The Mineville Pumped Storage Energy Project would harness power from water pumped through abandoned mine shafts in the town of Moriah. It would be a 260-megawatt facility.
“Good geology, good topography, and good access to the transmission system,” said Jim Besha, president of the Albany Engineering Corporation, the firm behind the project. The original plans were drawn in 1990. Then, developers said the hydro station would not be profitable. The Albany Engineering Corporation however, dusted off the old blueprints, and at a public meeting in Moriah last week, Besha said the company hopes to break ground in 2018. “The final license application has been submitted. All the studies have been done. And now the next step is for FERC, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to review the license,” Besha said.
About a hundred people attended the meeting and most supported the project. It would cost about $260 million. Besha said it would generate at least 100 construction jobs and ten long-term jobs.
Some worried the underground plant would cause tremors, but Besha said that is unlikely. He said the environmental impact would be “limited.” “We’re really not changing a whole lot. The water is already in the mine, it’s already full. We’re not changing the water courses at all,” he said.
The license application is now under review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Besha said he expects the plant to be operational by 2021.
Thanks to Mountain Lake PBS for help with this story.