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Wisconsin company snatches up, reclaims aging hydroelectric dams

Renewable World Energies sees opportunity in relics of prior century

By Thomas Content of the Journal Sentinel

Dec. 15, 2013

As utilities have sold off hydroelectric power projects, Bill Harris' Wisconsin-based company is picking them up and investing in them.

Where some see decrepit relics of a prior century, Harris sees opportunity.

Power from flowing water is arguably "the most overlooked renewable resource," Harris said.

While much of the renewable energy buzz centers on solar and wind, hydroelectric plants are still the dominant source of renewable power worldwide, including in Wisconsin.

Harris is founder and president of Renewable World Energies in Neshkoro, a town of 429 people in Marquette County in central Wisconsin. Renewable World Energies owns or operates more than 20 power-generating dams in the upper Midwest.

A hydroelectric engineering company, Kiser Hydro, also owned and run by Harris, is working to refurbish those dams using new financing.

In some ways, it's natural that it's happening in Wisconsin, as Appleton was home to the nation's first hydroelectric power project.

"Mother nature plays a big role in the business, and many utilities are frightened away from managing a business that's closely tied to the weather, especially lately," as weather patterns shift from floods to drought and back, Harris said.

"We're not. We're sort of like farmers — power farmers."

Last month, Geo Investors Renewable Infrastructure Fund, a private equity firm, announced plans to invest $2.3 million in the Neshkoro company, starting with a project that will double the power capacity of a dam in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

The investment will be used primarily to pay for upgrades to the Cataract hydroelectric project near Gwinn, Mich., as well as to support operation and maintenance of the Au Train dam project near Munising, Mich.

The two hydroelectric plants can produce 3 megawatts of renewable energy, which is sold to the Upper Peninsula Power Co., an electric utility that's a sister company of Green Bay-based Wisconsin Public Service Corp.

35 years of experience

Kiser Hydro, based in Norway, Mich., works on hydroelectric projects around the country and is designing new equipment for the Cataract dam in Michigan. A new turbine will double the electricity output from the dam without additional environmental impact, Harris said.

Together, Renewable World Energies and Kiser employ more than 150 people in Neshkoro and Michigan.

A prior version of the Neshkoro business got its start 35 years ago when Harris and his partner, Chuck Alsberg, were both field electrical engineers for a Wisconsin utility.

In their travels, they came across abandoned hydroelectric projects throughout rural Wisconsin.

They considered it a waste to have the projects sitting and doing nothing. They decided to start buying and tinkering with them. Once the tinkering was done, they'd restart them.

The company's portfolio grew to more than 40 dams before North American Hydro was sold several years ago to a New Jersey owner and operator of hydroelectric facilities. At that time, Alsberg retired and Harris retained some of the dams in the portfolio and started Renewable World Energies.

By that time, their work had been recognized by utilities, which turned to North American Hydro to rehab and operate hydroelectric projects for them.

Clay Norrbom, co-founder and managing partner at the Geo Fund, said he hadn't heard of North American Hydro when he was growing up in northern Wisconsin's Shawano County. But as he looked to invest in clean-energy companies, he was intrigued by Renewable World Energies.

"What makes it interesting to us is it continues to grow," he said.

Some of the small dams in the company's portfolio are a century or more old and in need of improvements.

When they were built, usually to generate power for such things as mines or paper mills, the operators of the dams would shut a river off, build up the water flow and then make electricity during the day when the mill was running.

A hydroelectric power plant relies on flowing water to spin the blades of a turbine, which is connected to a generator that makes electricity as the turbine spins.

Outproducing wind farms

Statistics from the Department of Administration show that hydroelectric power accounted for nearly half the state's renewable energy generated in 2010, the most recent year for which statistics are available. That amounted to about 3% of the state's electricity that year.

Hydroelectric plants were responsible for generating twice as much electricity as that produced by Wisconsin wind farms in 2010, according to the state Energy Office.

Not everyone is a fan of hydroelectric power.

Environmental groups have raised concerns about the impact of dams on the ecosystem and aquatic life. There is agreement, though, that the environmental concerns over small run-of-river hydroelectric plants such as those owned and operated by Renewable World Energies pale in comparison with large hydroelectric projects.

In recent years, the biggest debate in Wisconsin involving hydroelectric projects was whether the power produced by large out-of-state dams, such as those being developed in Manitoba, should be allowed to "count" for utilities seeking to comply with the state's 10% renewable energy target. A bill approved and signed by Gov. Scott Walker would allow large new dams in Manitoba to be used to meet the Wisconsin green-energy target.

Also, regulation of dams has changed the way they are run. And to protect fish and other aquatic life, the operators can't stop a river's flow entirely.

That's where Kiser Hydro's technology comes in.

"What those guys do, with the right engineering, is design new turbines that go into these old stations and give them a new lease on life and make them produce more electricity," Harris said.

The difference-maker is the use of new technology that enables the turbine to produce energy at increased efficiency and at a wide variety of river flows. Renewable World Energy is projecting an 80% improvement in annual energy production because of the Kiser design.

The Cataract project could be replicated at other dams, which could prompt more growth and more investment from Geo Fund.

For now, Renewable World Energies is going with the flow.

"We're not around to be bought and sold like commodities," Harris said. "We're here to develop the resource in the most efficient long-term way we can."