# How Do I Get A Licence for a LOW HEAD Hydroelectric power plant?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-licence-for-a-low-head-hydroelectric-power-plant/344966>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 17, 2006, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-licence-for-a-low-head-hydroelectric-power-plant/344966 "2006-02-17T17:14:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-licence-for-a-low-head-hydroelectric-power-plant/344966/1 "2006-02-17T17:14:55Z")

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Where I live, I see a lot of potentail power sources going to waste. For example, the Charles River (Boston, MA). This river drops about 23 feet at the Moody St. Dam in Waltham. How do I apply for a licences to build a power plant to use this energy? The river is NOT navigatable-so the Army COE need not be involved. This river also drops about 3 feet at the watertown dam-not much, but it could run a few houses.  
Anybody know how low head hydro projects are approved? Who do you need to see?

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**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-licence-for-a-low-head-hydroelectric-power-plant/344966/2 "2006-02-17T17:40:16Z")

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Hmmm… I can’t answer your question, but I have looked around. You say that the river drops at two dams… according to what I’ve read online, most of the dams are for generating electricity. If these dams are privately owned, they may have something to say about you putting up turbines on their dams. You may be able to find out more by contacting [the CRWA](http://www.crwa.org/index.html?history.html&2). If they don’t like the ecological impact of your project, I would imagine they’ll give you a hard way to go.

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**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-licence-for-a-low-head-hydroelectric-power-plant/344966/3 "2006-02-17T17:52:52Z")

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It takes a long, LONG time to get a license. 20 years from application to being granted permission to turn on the turbines is perfectly normal.

If you really want to look into it, perhaps contact FERC - the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. They are the ones who grant the license. You can have the whole plant built but until you get the license, you can’t turn on the turbines, and obviously cannot sell any energy. (Maybe the process might be different if you don’t plan to sell and only want to power your own house.)

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**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-a-licence-for-a-low-head-hydroelectric-power-plant/344966/4 "2006-02-17T18:01:58Z")

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The other concern here is that people like waterfalls, and hydroelectrics usually replace waterfalls, so the public would be opposed to your plans.