IDAHO FALLS — Through partnership with the city of Idaho Falls and Idaho Falls Power, the Idaho National Laboratory has installed a new hydroelectric exhibit in Heritage Park.
The new interactive exhibit, a scaled-down model of the Old Lower Power Plant affectionately named “The Little Lower” by Idaho Falls Power employees, takes the form of a tiny functioning hydroelectric dam that “will promote understanding of hydropower and its importance to regional power generation,” the INL said in a news release.
“Jason Cooper, Idaho Falls Power’s generation superintendent, collaborated with Bill McKellip, a design technician, to design the model,” INL said in a news release. “Cooper and his generation crew built the miniature powerhouse and dam structure, and the team collaborated with students at Brigham Young University-Idaho to 3D print a replica of the Old Lower Plant’s generator, which is visible through windows in the replica powerhouse.”
“At INL, we wanted to create a family-friendly, fun, and interactive exhibit that invites the public to explore and engage with science in a meaningful way,” said Shannon Bragg-Sitton, an associate laboratory director at INL, in the news release. “We’re thrilled to be able to give back to our community, and we’re grateful for the strong partnership we’ve built with Idaho Falls Power to make this possible.”
The project’s funding comes from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technology Office.
“I have been very appreciative that the DOE has given us a small pot of funds each year for the last several years to look at innovative outreach and engagement mechanisms to connect the work that we do as national labs to communities in the broader public,” said Thomas Mosier, the Decision Sciences Department Manager, at the INL. “So we kind of had the idea that for this year, one of our priorities for those funds was to be able to partner with the city and with our local community to better our hydropower work with the public.”
Though the INL is most heavily associated with its work regarding things in the nuclear realm, the INL also works with things like hydropower. This is not the first time the INL has worked with the city of Idaho Falls and Idaho Falls Power.
“The INL had some education money to educate people on hydroelectricity, and so they came to Idaho Falls Power, and they talked about what kind of a project they could do in collaboration,” said Lisa Burtenshaw, Idaho Falls City Council President. “Out of that meeting, it turned out that we said, yeah, let’s do something. And let’s not only design it, but let’s build something interactive.”
Burtenshaw said Heritage Park was specifically chosen as the site for the interactive exhibit because it is right across the river from the Idaho Falls Power Plant. The city wanted to highlight its heritage of hydroelectricity.
“It was just a perfect marriage and partnership to be able to have something that was historically important to the city, to be put in Heritage Park,” said Burtenshaw.
Hydropower accounts for around one-third of the city’s energy needs, and Idaho Falls has utilized hydropower plants since the early 20th century. Outside the city, a large portion of the power purchased and brought into the city comes from hydropower plants along the Columbia River system.
The new interactive exhibit is hoped to educate visitors on the value of hydropower as a reliable and affordable energy source.
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