From the Denver Business Journal (Cathy Proctor):
“Several hundred of these kind of projects in Colorado are possible, with a combined capacity of about 1,400 megawatts,” said Francisco Flores, a renewable-energy program associate with the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO). That’s enough power to support the demand of about 910,000 homes.
“Small” hydroelectric projects are defined as units that generate less than 5 megawatts of power. A “micro” hydroelectric power plant typically generates less than 100 kilowatts of power, said Kirby Gilbert, a hydropower planner with engineering firm MWH Global Inc., based in Broomfield.
There’s rising interest in putting these small turbines on existing dams, or dropping them into any place that has moving water — such as inside a city’s water pipeline, a farmer’s irrigation ditch or at the outfall from a wastewater treatment plant, Flores said.