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<br />003418 <br /> <br />The first step to getting a license to build and operate a small-scale <br />hydroelectric facility is to apply to the FERC for a permit to develop <br />a site. The permit application estimstes, sometimes rather crudely, <br />the power cspabilities of the site, supplies information on the <br />developer and so forth. Good information on sites is not available <br />until after a license is issued; only then is the developer assured he <br />will eventuslly be able to operate the facility, so only then is <br />detailed engineering work done. No potential developer in Colorado has <br />received a license and most developers have not been issued a permit. <br />For this reason the information on the potential sites is not good. and <br />figures supplied for the FERC applications are not precise. <br /> <br />A case-by-case survey of FERC permit applications reveals the <br />information contained in Table 3.2. We have categorized facilities <br />into four groups, separated by basic differences in hydro <br />technologies. Facilities to be constructed at sites where dams exist <br />predominate. In most of these cases the task of the hydro developer is <br />to add the facilities needed to generate power. There are forty such <br />projects under way in the state. Since five of these are rather large <br />(20 mw or larger), they are shown separately. There are 13 proposals <br />to install turbines on irrigation ditches and conduits: average <br />capacities are 1.45 mw. Run-of-river situations (which will be <br />described in greater detail below) are fewer; six sites have average <br />capacity of 1.06 mw. Capacities at four sites attached to the outflow <br />from municipal water treatment plants average 7.01 mw. (Four FERC <br />applications were also exsmined where the data did not permit <br />categorization.) <br /> <br />The total potential capacity reflected in the FERC applications is <br />343.6 mw. If this capacity were developed, it would increase the <br />state's total generation capability by about six percent and hydro <br />capacity by more than 68 percent. <br /> <br />14 <br />