From the Loveland Reporter-Herald (Pamela Dickman):
By June, it will be up and running, adding as much as 2.6 megawatts of power to the Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association grid, or enough to power 1,000 homes.
The water from Carter Lake drops 120 feet to a feeder canal that distributes it to cities and farmers east of Loveland. The kinetic energy unleashed in that drop will now be harnessed and turned into electric power for the grid, all by a simple detour through two turbines built and imported from Gilkes, a company based in Kendal, England.
The twin turbines weigh 10 tons apiece and are connected to generators that tip the scale at 15 tons — equipment held into place by bolts as large and heavy as dumbbells, shipped to Houston by boat then trucked to Colorado along highways. The special equipment arrived Thursday, and a team from Northern Water, Gilkes and Berthoud-based Aslan Construction have been working every day since to get the equipment in place — within a thousandth of an inch. The team is carefully balancing and placing the equipment to work as efficiently a possible.