Jeffrey Tomich of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch exams efforts by developers to use the Mississippi River as a power source at a dozen locations between southeast Iowa and the Missouri Bootheel, including the city of Quincy at Lock and Dam 21.

The city of Quincy last month applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a license to build a 15-megawatt hydroelectric project at Lock and Dam 21. The problem is, that process could take up to a year, and none of the potential equity partners that have expressed an interest in the $100 million project appear to want to commit money until the license is in hand. That means the city can’t tap into $30 million in federal stimulus money unless it spends $5 million of its own money by Dec. 31, or unless that deadline is extended by Congress.

Despite the possibilities hydropower development presents — and experts point out several in the article — trying to raise capital for the expensive projects in this economy, dealing with a “long and arduous” licensing process, the scrutiny facing new technologies and the inevitable environmental concerns are considered the major stumbling blocks.

Writes Tomich:

… They all share a common goal: to harness the river’s flow to cash in on the booming interest in renewable power. But each group likewise faces an undercurrent of financial and regulatory challenges that have dashed developers’ hopes in the past.

Can those hurdles be cleared? That question remains to be answered.