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HYDROVISION returns to hydro’s birthplace in the U.S. Upper Midwest

HYDROVISION returns to hydro’s birthplace in the U.S. Upper Midwest

After a long hiatus due to COVID-19, HYDROVISION International is returning to the Upper Midwest of the U.S., being held in Minneapolis next July.

Minneapolis is a great destination for the hydropower and dams industry, as it is generally accepted that the Upper Midwest of the U.S. is the birthplace of modern hydropower. The first hydropower plant to operate was in Michigan in 1880, and in 1882, the first hydro facility to serve private and commercial customers began operating in Wisconsin.

HYDROVISION International 2020 was scheduled for Minneapolis, until the shutdown in March 2020 prevented that from happening.

According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, there are 33 hydropower projects in the state, most of them smaller than 20 MW. In fact, the only facility larger is Minnesota Power’s Thomson plant, at 72 MW. Utilities operating hydropower in the state are Eagle Creek Renewable Energy, International Falls Power, Minnesota Power, Ottertail Power, SAF Hydroelectric, Sappi Cloquet, Twin Cities Hydro and Xcel Energy. Two hydro plants are operated by counties – Dakota County Electric Coop and Rapidan Redevelopment – and the rest are owned by cities: Brainerd, Granite Falls, Hastings, Lanesboro, Redwood Falls, Rochester, St. Cloud and Thief River Falls.

Minneapolis has a unique heritage in the form of William de la Barre. According to the Minnesota Historical Society, De la Barre was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1849 and studied mechanical engineering at Vienna Polytechnic Institute. After his family immigrated to the U.S. in 1866, he studied at Polytechnic College in Philadelphia. In the 1870s, De la Barre became a U.S. citizen and began his career in gas engineering.

The Washburn A Mill explosion in 1878 put De la Barre on a new path. He came to Minneapolis about a month later as a representative of Brehmer Brothers Company, which had the U.S. license for a new system to eliminate flour dust in mills, preventing future explosions. Cadwallader Colden (C.C.) Washburn was interested in the devices and asked De la Barre to install three in his B Mill on a trial basis. De la Barre did so at his own expense. Washburn ordered many more, paid De la Barre for his expenses plus a commission and offered him a job. De la Barre moved his family to Minneapolis.

One of De la Barre’s first jobs was to rebuild the A Mill, which was operational again by 1880. In 1881, De la Barre was named a director of Minneapolis Mill Company. He assumed responsibility for the water power generated at St. Anthony Falls after Minneapolis Mill merged with St. Anthony Water Power Company during the creation of Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills Company in 1889.

Before 1889, De la Barre had begun improvements on the west side of St. Anthony Falls, supervising the creation of a new canal and headraces that greatly increased the power available. In the 1890s, he made improvements on the east side of the falls.

De la Barre’s greatest achievement, in 1896 and 1897, was building the Lower Dam and Lower Dam Hydro Plant below St. Anthony Falls. Charles Alfred Pillsbury, general manager of Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills Company, funded the project. The dam added 10,000 horsepower to the existing power available at the falls and the hydro plant was leased immediately by Thomas Lowry’s Twin City Rapid Transit Company, which used the power to run its electric streetcar system. Later, De la Barre built another hydro plant on Hennepin Island and it also was leased by the transit company.

De la Barre … joined the leadership group of Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills Company in 1899 and managed all water power at the falls until 1923, when water rights went to what would later become Northern States Power Company.

De la Barre was consulted on water power projects in Georgia and Montana and was asked to help develop hydroelectricity in Japan in 1908 but decided to stay in Minneapolis.

Now is your chance to participate and help shape the HYDROVISION International 2025 event, with our call for advisory committee members now open. And our call for content will open soon.