electricity-generating barges in the Ohio River?!

A cool idea-- but will it work-- from James Bruggers in the C-J...

And is this subsidized or mandated or economically efficient??

An Ohio company is seeking to anchor barges at 11 spots along the Ohio River, including Louisville, as part of a potential $22 million “green” initiative to turn river current into electrical current.

The barges, with submerged turbines, would each generate relatively little electricity — enough to power about 260 typical homes.

But as Congress moves closer to requiring utilities to get electricity from renewable sources like water and wind, entrepreneurs think small-scale projects will add up to fill the demand.

While dams have long been a source of hydroelectric power, using barges to capture the power of moving water — a technique known as hydrokinetics — has been getting attention recently....

Federal regulators have issued 144 preliminary permits for similar projects since 2007, with more than 65 on the Mississippi River....

But there are skeptics.

“We've not seen where the economics of hydrokinetics work,” said David Brown Kinloch, a Louisville engineer and partner in the refurbishment of the Mother Ann Lee power plant at Lock and Dam No. 7 on the Kentucky River....