Rochester is home to so many treasures. We have the beautiful high falls, beaches along Lake Ontario, and of course, Rochester is home to the infamous trash plate.
But there’s something else that most people don’t think about, and it’s Hydroelectric Power!
Rochester is home to RGE Hydroelectric stations 2, station 5 and station 26 which all together put out about 57.5 Megawatts of Electricity (per RGE’s Website). According to RG&E, station 5 can power about 7,400 homes alone!
And the Gem of the Genesee – the most powerful hydro station in Rochester, station 5 is turning 100 this year.
A Quick Hydroelectric Tour
We had a chance to go into the bowels of the plant, where the rubber meets the road, and the power from the raging Genesee is converted to electricity for your i-pod. The video below shows one of the three turbine shafts. This shaft is turned by the water, and in-turn, spins the generator.
Each generator has a nameplate capacity of 16,000 HP! That’s more than 800 average car engines.
The Best Part
The best part is that it’s all green! There are no emissions coming from the hydro plant at all – no greenhouse gasses means a big help in the reduction of global warming. Based on an average output of 53 million kilowatt-hours per year, the plant will have made 5.3 Billion kilowatt-hours of power over the last 100 years. That’s probably enough to power Doc Brown’s Time Machine, and with no emissions!
