Sunday’s Post-Dispatch had a great story about expanded interest in hydropower along the Mississippi River. New technology is making it possible to generate power from rivers without the vertical drop, or “flow,” that has been needed in the past. That is why most of America’s hydropower has, to date, come from rivers that emerge from mountainous areas — they have a much greater flow. Anyway, the Post article details the renewed interest in Mississippi hydropower by private industry and public utilities. Of course, private investment is much more interesting to me, although most of the private proposals do involve using public dams along the river. It is exciting to read about these proposals, and I hope that local hydropower can take its place along with wind and solar power as an important auxiliary, peak, or complementary power source.

Of course, if you want clean and remewable baseload power generation for Missouri, there is really only one way to go. …