Despite the ubiquity and untapped potential of hydroelectric power in the U.S. and worldwide, I think it's still an unheralded renewable power source. But that is changing rapidly. Look, for instance, at yesterday's Star-Ledger story about Sparta's plans to convert a spring-fed quarry into a significant source of hydro power.

I expect to hear more announcements like this -- municipalities (and private companies) seeking environmentally-sound ways to raise revenue and feed the power grid, especially by harnessing hydroelectric power.

It's estimated that hydropower supplies 8-9% of all power in the U.S. and almost 20% worldwide. Its advantages are enormous: it's clean, renewable, and available. Most importantly there are vast amounts of untapped hydropower behind existing dams whose flow isn't being used to create power -- easily enough to triple hydropower's share of NJ's power generation (and thus replace a great deal of dirty, carbon-belching coal power).

And the technology for doing so has improved. For instance, HydroCoil Power, which is a client of the Sustainable Business Incubator of NJ's Fairleigh Dickinson University, has developed a small turbine (just three feet long) that enables smaller and smaller dams to generate power. These could be employed without creating any new dams, and without harming the ecosystems that have developed both upstream and downstream from the dams. I wrote about HydroCoil and the Sustainable Business Institute earlier this month.

And a New York Times article this summer reported that HydroCoil is setting its nationwide sights on 700-800 dams (many in NJ) less than 100 feet high that could potentially be used to generate electricity with the company’s patented turbines. The company says power from its turbines costs a fraction of wind and solar, and can have a mere 2-year payback period for a new investment.

The use of hydropower is ancient, yet its applicability in New Jersey is rising drastically today -- Appropriate for a state whose own Paterson Falls hydro plant helped launch the American Industrial Revolution

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