Forget wind farms. Louisiana’s energy potential may be below the surface, and I’m not talking about oil and gas. The Teche News reports that four companies are working on a new hydrokinetic technology to capture energy sustainably beneath the waters of the Atchafalaya River. The project, overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, will plant underwater turbine towers in the bed of the river. The force of the flowing water spins the turbines, generating energy. Free Flow Power Corporation of Gloucester, Mass., plans to have test turbines in place this year.
The company is looking mainly at the Mississippi River drainage as potential sites for the turbines. According to Free Flow Power’s Web site:
The largest grouping of sites that meet our highest standards are located on the Lower and Middle Mississippi River. The Mississippi is the largest available source of river energy in North America, and its importance as a navigational resource has limited the development of hydroelectric facilities in its lower reaches, preserving the opportunity for hydrokinetic development.
There are nearly 150 FERC-permitted hydrokinetic sites in the United States. Sixty of them are located along the Mississippi River, from below New Orleans up into Illinois, as well as two at the Old River Structure juncture of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers. Hundreds more are proposed, including 17 proposed sites in the Atchafalaya River.
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
At Thursday's State of the Economy luncheon, LEDA President and CEO Gregg Gothreaux said PXP has already quietly hired 180 people for its Broussard expansion.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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