This Land, Your Land

The Army Corps of Engineers says in an update of the hydro-electric power project at Jordan Lake that the first generator began commercial operation in January and the second unit should be online by early to mid-summer.

Jordan Hydro Limited, Inc., a private company, began constructing two generators at the Jordan Lake dam near Moncure in November 2010. The Corps of Engineers administers the B. Everett Jordan Dam and Reservoir, including a recreation area at the dam.

The combined Kaplan-style modular turbine generators are expected to produce about 16,900 megawatt hours of electricity per year, enough to supply approximately 1,700 homes, the Corps' news release says. The power is sold to Progress Energy and distributed to homes and businesses in the area.

The City of Raleigh is considering a similar project at Falls Lake Dam, which is also managed by the Corps of Engineers for flood control and public recreation.

About 76 percent of water passing through the Jordan Lake dam will be used to create power that is non-polluting and emits no carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the Corps says.

The amount of water released from Jordan Lake will not change for the hydroelectricity project, and will remain based on factors such as inflow, downstream flood conditions, municipal water requirements and water quality.

"That was one of the big concerns of stakeholders," Jordan Dam Operations Manager Craig Shoe said. "We're not going to change anything operationally. Jordan Hydro only uses the water that we regularly release."

Jordan Hydro, a subsidiary of North Fork Electric, Inc., has more information and photos of the Jordan Lake construction project here.

By the middle of next year, Jordan Lake should be a source of renewable energy via hydroelectric power generators being installed at the dam near Moncure.

The Corps of Engineers, which administers the B. Everett Jordan Dam and Reservoir, said today the road across the dam would close this week as construction began. The Corps operates a visitor center and picnic area at the dam and allows bank fishing below the spillway.

Installation of two vertical generators on the upstream side of the dam's water intake tower should take up to eight months, the Corps said. Each of the generators contains a 2.2-megawatt turbine.

A private enterprise, the Jordan Hydroelectric Limited Partnership, is installing the generators.

When complete, the project will generate up to 16,900 megawatt hours of green power annually, enough to power more than 1,500 homes.

In 2007, the state legislature required power companies to derive at least 12.5 percent of their energy from a combination of renewable sources and from energy-saving programs by 2021, according to a News & Observer article from 2009 about a hydroelectric firm previously expected to build at Jordan Lake.

Progress Energy, which gets less than 1 percent of its power from renewable energy sources, would buy the power produced at Jordan Lake.

This is the first of several such projects proposed or in process for Wilmington District Corps of Engineers facilities, which include W. Kerr Scott Lake in Wilkes County, Falls Lake in Wake County, and three Locks and Dams on the Cape Fear River, all of which also offer public recreation sites.