The Mojave Water Agency yesterday initiated operation of its Deep Creek Hydroelectric Clean-Energy System.
The facility, located on the grounds of the Mojave Water Agency’s Central Operations Center on Deep Creek Road in Apple Valley, utilizes gravity and the constant flow of water at that point traveling through the California Aqueduct and diverted to it by a series of pipelines to generate 820-kilowatts of electricity.
The water rushes through a 32-foot-by-40-foot building, in which is contained a hydroelectric turbine generator. The hydroelectric system, which cost $4.3 million to design and construct under the direction of Mojave Water Agency Engineering Director Darrell Reynolds, will reduce the electricity provision need that would otherwise be met by the burning of fossil fuels, thus reducing by 4,540 metric tons the carbon dioxide that would have been emitted into the atmosphere by a generating station elsewhere in the Victor Valley.
Seen in other terms, the hydroelectric system will reduce the volume of air pollution equal to the greenhouse gas emissions from 972 passenger vehicles, while it supplies .0009879518072289157, slightly less than one-thousandth of the 830 megawatts generated at the High Desert Power Plant in Victorville.
Mojave Water Agency officials participated in the project with an eye toward reducing the agency’s carbon footprint and reaching the State of California’s stated target of having half of all of its energy supplied by renewable sources by 2030.
The electrical power generated is conveyed into Southern California Edison’s grid. Mojave Water Agency officials maintain the cost of the project will be recouped over the coming decade through reduced outlays for energy purchases.