Looking toward the future
Potential for Lynchburg area dam to provide long-term benefits for Liberty
As Liberty continues to see growth in population and the size of the campus, the university is interested in purchasing a dam located on the James River.
The News & Advance reports the site of interest is Scott’s Mill Dam, which is located in downtown Lynchburg and was built between 1830 and 1840. Liberty is now considering buying and enhancing the dam to produce hydroelectric power.
Power — Leaders at Liberty proposed enhancing the dam. Photo credit: Michela Diddle
Vice President for Special Projects Chris Carroll said President Jerry Falwell assigned him to this project. Carroll said the project is still being thought out but has potential to benefit the school.
“We are in the beginning, exploratory stage,” Carroll said. “We are still in what I would call the infancy of the project.”
Carroll said he would expect the project to take anywhere from 18 months to two years to complete. Once the project is complete, Carroll said the university could start seeing financial benefits during the second or third year of use and that the benefits will increase as the years continue.
Because the dam is set in nature, Carroll said it is most likely a reliable investment.
“When you look at renewable energy … the river is going to be there a hundred years from now,” Carroll said. “So if the university decided to make a utility portfolio based on the way the river would flow and produce energy, a reasonable assumption would be that a hundred years from now that is all still in place. So that is really our way of thinking. How do we … as a university that continues to grow and expand … hedge our utility cost?”
Carroll said the project would benefit the university long term, and most people would never even know it existed.
Because of the various factors involved in purchasing and enhancing the dam, the decision to begin the project will ultimately be up to Falwell and the university board. Carroll also said he is working with Executive Vice President Randy Smith, the construction department and Liberty’s attorneys to solidify the project details.
Carroll said the university is looking toward projects that would help Liberty in the long run.
“Our president is very visionary,” Carroll said. “We continue to look for ways to improve ourselves. If you look around at all the construction going on, those are all ways to improve the Liberty campus, to improve resources and activities for the student body (and) to make Liberty better. The same is to be said for the way we position ourselves financially, and we felt that this was worth looking at because it would provide a hedge for utility costs for years to come.”
Carroll said this project could protect the university financially by providing utilities.
“When we go to look at the financial side, the benefit to the students, and the long term benefits, there is a lot that goes into the equation before the decision can be made,” Carroll said.
Carroll said the project could also benefit Lynchburg as well as Liberty. The city of Lynchburg could potentially buy into a direct line from the dam, and there are other possibilities where the city benefits from the dam.
“It would have to be built up and have the hydro installed, which would then help generate the electricity,” Carroll said. “So the dam currently is there, but it is just water flow. It doesn’t really do anything. By improving that, creating the hydro and creating electricity, it could either (only) go straight back to Liberty … or we can actually sell it back to the open market. But the primary goal is (to figure out) how … this asset benefits Liberty 20, 30 or 100 years from now.”
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