Potato Rapids

Hydro power plant in Wisconsin, United States of America. Approximate location 45.1136, -87.7586.

HydroWisconsinUnited States of America

Potato Rapids is a 1 MW hydro power plant in Wisconsin, United States of America. It is operated by Wisconsin Public Service Corp. Based on reported annual generation of 7 GWh, it can supply roughly 2,000 homes. It ranks #9057 of 9,833 United States of America power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1922, it is around 104 years old — an older, legacy facility. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 5.3% of United States of America's electricity; the national grid averages 384 gCO₂/kWh (43.0% low-carbon) (2025).

1MW installed capacity
7GWh reported / yr
2,000homes powered
1922commissioned (~104 yrs)

Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id USA0004071.

Reported generation trend

2013: 4 GWh20132014: 5 GWh20142015: 5 GWh20152016: 5 GWh20162017: 4 GWh20172018: 6 GWh20182019: 7 GWh20197 GWh

Annual generation (GWh), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).

Owner

Operated by Wisconsin Public Service Corp. All plants by this company →

Local climate & thermal context

This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 45.1°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.

6.6°Cannual mean temp
4,274heating degree-days (base 18°C)
128cooling degree-days (base 18°C)
193 melevation

Monthly mean temperature

J: -9 °CJF: -7 °CFM: -1 °CMA: 6 °CAM: 13 °CMJ: 18 °CJJ: 21 °CJA: 20 °CAS: 15 °CSO: 9 °CON: 2 °CND: -6 °CD21 °C

Heating degree-days here run 74% above the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.

Climate heat-demand index: 88/100 — this site sits in the top third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.

In colder climates, uninsulated hot equipment (boilers, turbines, valves, steam lines) loses proportionally more heat to ambient air — exactly the loss Inzonex modular insulation is designed to cut.

Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.

How it compares & nearby plants

The #1348 largest hydro power plant of 1449 in United States of America by capacity.

United States of America has 1449 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 101,657 MW of capacity.

Nearby power plants

Location

Coordinates 45.1136, -87.7586 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.

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