Pa. county to procure hydropower from 17.8-MW Rye Development project

Allegheny County, Pa., which encompasses the city of Pittsburgh, entered into a 35-year power purchase agreement for the electrical output of a 17.8-MW hydropower facility Rye Development will build on the Ohio River.

Rye Development is collaborating with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build the facility at the existing Emsworth Main Channel Dam on the Ohio River, the company said in a Jan. 28 news release. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2021 with operations expected to be achieved by mid-2023.

Rye Development, a subsidiary of Free Flow Power Corp., plans to build 10 hydropower facilities in the southwestern Pennsylvania region. It previously contracted with the University of Pittsburgh to supply one-fourth of the university's electricity needs.

Earlier in January, Climate Adaptive Infrastructure LLC, an infrastructure investment firm, teamed up with Rye Development to fund the construction of 22 hydroelectric projects with a total of about 250 MW at existing nonpowered dams in six states. Most of the dams are owned and operated by the Corps, Rye said in a news release.