One of three firms vying to build turbines to generate electricity from currents in the Mississippi River has backed out on plans to include sites in Warren and Issaquena counties.

If completed, the river turbines could supplement the are a power grid, but would not create nearly enough electricity to serve the area. Turbines are placed or suspended in the stream below navigable depths. The current spins them and, in turn, generators.

Free Flow Power Corp. has applied for “green technology” development money from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Water Power funding stream included in the federal stimulus legislation passed in February.

“Free Flow Power has applied for multiple grant funding opportunities made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,” said Jon Guidroz, director of project development for the Massachusetts-based firm.

The company has preliminary permits on 55 sites on the river south of St. Louis. Two are situated in Warren County, near the Brunswick community and another south of Vicksburg near Davis Island. The company has courted former federal energy officials and others — including retired Brig. Gen. Robert Crear, former commander of the Army Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division — to its board of directors to guide plans through the regulatory process.

Houston-based Hydro Green Energy has abandoned plans to place turbines south of Kings Point Island and downriver near Vidalia, La., the company has said.

“Our development focus has turned to other projects around the U.S. and we’ve surrendered the preliminary permits for the Vidalia and Vicksburg sites,” said Mark Stover, the firm’s vice president for corporate affairs. “Our Mississippi-specific focus is now on a hydropower project located at Amory Lock and Dam on the Tennessee-Tombigbee River.”

The company, which spearheaded the nation’s first licensed and working hydrokinetic turbine earlier this year in Hastings, Minn., did not cite a reason for the shift to the smaller river.

Both companies were in informal talks with the previous city administration about selling a turbine to the city for municipal use. No information on any talks with the new administration was available. Both aim to have their respective projects licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by 2012.

Issaquena County supervisors have met deadlines to own the license for turbines planned in the river at Fitler Bend and near the Addie community, board attorney Charles Weissinger said. Approval for the sites was granted to Louisiana-based MARMC Enterprises LLC, which would share in the revenue from power sales with the county.

Supplementary information, such as maps, will be supplied as requested by FERC, Weissinger said. FERC officials have said preference is given to cities and counties who apply for turbines, particularly those who partner with private firms. Nicoline Marinovich of MARMC said feasibility studies on the sites continue. Preliminary permits were issued this year to the company on those two sites and four in Louisiana.

As planned and in practice in Hastings, turbines resemble jet engines but spin like windmills to generate electricity for sale to power grid or single industries. Average sales have been estimated at 1,600 megawatts from typical rated installed capacities of 10 kilowatts from flow velocities of 2 to 4 meters per second, according to details on FERC applications.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com