Grist Mill at Center of Project on Untapped Energy Sources

The same hydropower once used to mill grain is now powering a new generator at the Stony Brook Grist Mill, thanks to a partnership between a team of Stony Brook University students and the Ward Melville Heritage Organization.

Assistant professor Lei Zuo said the project was developed to demonstrate  how water mills could be retrofitted to produce hydroelectricity. According to Zuo, 43 percent of New York state's renewable hydropower resources are still undeveloped. He believes the Stony Brook Grist Mill is the state's first instance of retrofitting of an historic water mill to produce electricity.

"People talk about solar and wind energy, but the cost of hydropower is much lower than wind and solar," Zuo said. "They forget about hydropower. It has great potential."

The Grist Mill Hydropower System produces up to 1.5 kilowatts of power, which is about what's needed to supply two homes with electricity, Zuo said. A pair of lightbulbs in the mill's lower room are lit entirely by the generator's power.

The generator was installed in April. The project took a year to complete and was funded by the University at a cost of about $1,600, according to Brian Bates, one of the three students involved in the project. Bates and colleagues Edwin Gonzalez and Dimauro Edwards, all members of the University's class of 2010, started with an $800 generator and adapted it for use with hydropower.

"We had to make a transition system that would absorb most of the force," said Bates, who said the water in the grist mill's system provided around 15,000 pounds of torque.

Yacov Shamash, Vice President for Economic Development and Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science, praised the project at its unveiling on Monday.

"It's a great example of how a university and a community should be interacting together," Shamash said.

The Stony Brook Grist Mill, built in 1751, is operated as a museum by the WMHO and is listed with both the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Revolutionary War Heritage Trail.