———————– ** Fresh Green Beans ** ———————– Grown in Kansas. Eaten Worldwide.

Bowersock Power’s hydroelectric plant on the Kansas River provides an alternative for customers looking for carbon-free energy.
Photo by Lauren Keith

Tucked away in a non-imposing brick building near Sixth and New Hampshire, the quiet beast hums away, fed by the waters of the Kansas River. Inside the facility that passers-by may think is abandoned, lies Kansas’ only hydroelectric plant.

The hydroelectric plant, which is owned by the Bowersock Mills & Power Co., produces 2.5 megawatts of energy, or enough electricity to power about 2,000 homes and businesses, Nicholas Herndon, a worker at the plant, said.

The thought of a dam in the middle of the Great Plains is somewhat strange because many think a drastic change in elevation is needed to take the energy from the water.

“What we don’t have in height, we make up for in quantity,” explains co-owner Sarah Hill-Nelson.

Although this is one of the oldest hydroelectric plants west of the Mississippi River, the changing flux of Lawrence residents doesn’t know that the plant even exists or that they have the option to buy environmentally friendly energy.

To have green energy in your home, you can buy “green tags.”

Mark Maxwell, a worker at the dam, said Bowersock sells its power to Westar, and then Westar sends out the electricity on the grid that connects homes and businesses.

“You can’t really buy what we produce because you’re just buying energy off the grid,” Maxwell said. “Most of the energy is going to be produced by Westar, but for the tags you buy, Westar doesn’t produce that amount of energy, which lessens the amount of coal burned, the pollution and the environmental impact.”
The green tags cost about $20 per month. Tags can be purchased at greentagsusa.org.

Although some people think that buying green tags is a scam because green energy is supplied to the same electrical grid as non-renewable energy, it’s easy to see that green energy is being generated in Lawrence. We can see the hydroelectric plant in action.

“The more environmentally friendly energy we have, the better,” Maxwell said.

You’re dam right.

-Lauren Keith

: : : : : : : : : : :