Hennepin Island Hydroelectric Plant
NSP/Xcel renewed its license which was authorized by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in March 2004. One condition of the license is the creation of a recreation area to show the evolution of St. Anthony Falls. A portion of the island overlooking the falls has been made into Water Power Park, allowing the closest possible approaches to the falls. In 2008, NSP/Xcel collaborated with the University of Minnesota's St. Anthony Falls Laboratory on 'StreamLab', an 'experimental stream channel and floodplain system' which improves two existing flood bypass channels to study the site's ecology and hydrology.
The plant is one of 99 contributing properties of the St. Anthony Falls Historic District which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Crown Hydro, LLC, has proposed another hydro plant for the falls, to be built on the opposite bank of the Mississippi next to the Stone Arch Bridge.
Notes
- ^ Xcel Energy, (2006), St. Anthony Hydro Project (PDF)
- ^ Xcel Energy (n.d.). "Hennepin Island". Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved April 2, 2007.
- ^ "The river runs through it". University of Minnesota. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
- ^ Minnesota Historical Society (2001). "St. Anthony Falls Historic District". Archived from the original on May 17, 2011. Retrieved April 1, 2007.
- ^ Louwagie, Pam (March 21, 2007). "Hydro plant plan churns up again". Minneapolis Star Tribune. Archived from the original on March 29, 2007. Retrieved April 1, 2007.
