Dear SW: Here is a link to a site that explains various incentives for renewables in New York State. Many of the incentives only apply to solar or wind since these are the technologies that many states want to encourage rather than hydro. You may have seen some of the posts to the micro hydro site we are on recently discussing some of the reasons for favoring certain technologies over others.
http://www.dsireusa.org/library/includes/map2.cfm?CurrentPageID=1&State= NY You will also need to get a permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) if you plan to connect your microhydro plant to the grid. I'm not sure why very small hydro generators should have to have a federal permit to connect to the grid when solar and wind don't but that is a discussion for another day. Here is a link to the FERC website and its hydro manual (156 pages long): http://www.ferc.gov/industries/hydropower/enviro/compliance_handbook.pdf #xml=http://search.atomz.com/search/pdfhelper.tk?sp-o=2,100000,0 You may also need to contact the Corp of Engineers to do work on your dam. I don't know much about their involvement but it would be better to check first than have them come in an interdict your project. The good news is there are certain exemptions from their jurisdiction for small projects. I just can't remember what they are off hand. I'll see if I can locate the NY net metering statute. That is a program that requires a utility to take your power and apply it against any you use from the utility; under some programs, the utility must also pay you for any excess power you produce, but this is not true for all programs (for example, here in Nevada, you don't get paid for any excess, just credits against future use). Many utilities don't like these programs so don't be surprised if your local folks aren't very helpful. See if NY has some kind of Consumer Advocate for utility customers. Often this is an office within the Attorney General's Office. Frequently, these offices are very helpful to people who want to provide renewables and can at least point you in the right direction and sometimes even help you if the utility is stonewalling. There is also a federal law, PURPA (Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act of 1978). Before being amended by the 2005 Federal Energy Act (just signed in August), PURPA had certain provisions requiring utilities to buy excess power from certain non-utility generators. Some of these provisions have been affected by the 2005 Act but I am not familiar enough with these two Acts to offer much help. However, it may be worth spending a little time researching this on the Internet. Just enter "PURPA" and "2005 Federal Energy Policy Act" and you should be able to get some useful information about whether PURPA can help you. Finally, check on renewable energy credits (RECs) you may be eligible to sell as a result of producing renewable energy. Because some states require utilities to either produce a certain portion of their output from renewables or buy credits for them from people who do produce renewables, there is a market for these credits (NY is one of these states, I believe). Selling them can earn you money to offset the cost of your generator. Hope these general thoughts lead you to some useful info. Sincerely, Scott Young Nevada -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 7:30 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [microhydro] Digest Number 1259 I've been reading the digest of this list for a while, but I haven't seen a similiar situation to ours. We own a small 7 acre lake in the Catskills along with another parcel of land. The lake has an old dam on it that is breaking along the top. The bottom is piled rocks with a spillway at one end. There was a concrete wall along the top of the rock pile but that has been eroded and pushed away so water is spilling over the top of the rocks in one area. We're got an engineering company checking into the cost of repairing the dam right now. At the same time, we'd like to put a hydrogenerator in. The dam sits on our property and our neighbor's property, and there's a power line that runs through their land to their house about 200 feet away. They could tie into the grid there and use some of the power for their own needs. Our land is too far away on the other side of the lake to make it feasible to run a line to us. We've checked with the state power company, but as far as I can tell it's hit or miss whether they'll actually pay for electricity being fed back into the grid. Two streams feed the lake and it flows year-round. Our lake is the drainage for a 10 mile square area of land. I've been told that will roughly equal 10 kw of power, but we can't get anyone in there to measure the flow. We've called soil and water conseration, USGS, people with dams in the area, etc. Any suggestions for: 1) financial resources to assist? Since we can tie into the grid using the neighbor's line, we can get some incentives for personal use. But what else is there? I've checked the NYS Department of Public Service, and NYS Energy and Research Development, but it seems there's little incentive for other types of hydro projects. 2) type of equipment is most cost-effective? The height of the dam is 12 feet and the lake is 7 acres, about 6 feet deep. There's a place on the bottom on the outside of the dam to put the equipment. 3) how we can keep the DEC from telling us to tear down the dam? It's happening all over upstate NY. A dam recently was washed away in Briscoe, not far away from us, and it looks like it won't be rebuilt. Another dam was removed in a town near Narrowsburg. In both cases, vacation homes now encircle a grass-covered valley. Any suggestions would be appreciated. SW [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Does your company feature in the microhydro business directory at http://microhydropower.net/directory ? If not, please register free of charge and be exposed to the microhydro community world wide! 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