Hennepin Island Hydroelectric Plant

Hennepin Iceland Hydroelectric Plant or St. Anthony Hydro Plant is the name of a hydroelectric power station on the site of former sawmill at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The current building was built in 1882 by William de la Barre to generate electricity and is operated by Xcel Energy. The plant is located on the eastern shore of the Mississippi River near the Pillsbury A Mill at the only waterfalls on the course of the river that once provided power for sawmills, flour mills and other industrial plants. Today, the power plant is the only industrial use of the falls. The installed capacity of the five generators is about twelve megawatts.

Xcel Energy renewed in March 2004, granted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license for energy production at the site. A condition for this extension was the obligation in place to allow the public access to the facility and thereby demonstrate the importance for the development of the falls since the beginning of European settlement. A footpath leads now in front of the building over to the bridge that crosses the flood channel through which the power plant building of Hennepin Iceland is disconnected. Part of the island was converted into a visitor parking, which allows the public to directly approach the falls. In collaboration with the University of Minnesota a research station to be operated in order to study Ecology and Hydrology better locally.

The plant is one of 85 Contributing Properties in the Saint Anthony Falls Historic District.

Crown Hydro has proposed the construction of a new power plant on the opposite bank of the river, next to the Stone Arch Bridge.

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