Brunot Island (also spelled Brunot's Island) is a island in the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

. It is officially part of the

Marshall-Shadeland Marshall-Shadeland is a neighborhood on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's North Side. It has a zip codes of both 15212 and 15214, and has representation on Pittsburgh City Council by the council member for District 1 (North Neighborhoods). The neighb ...

neighborhood of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, in

Allegheny County Allegheny County () is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the state's seco ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It was named for Dr. Felix Brunot who settled the island with his extended family in the late 1700s. The family entertained the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...

on the island in August 1803. The island is home to the Brunot Island Generating Station, a 315 MW

fossil fuel power plant A fossil fuel power station is a thermal power station which burns a fossil fuel, such as coal or natural gas, to produce electricity. Fossil fuel power stations have machinery to convert the heat energy of combustion into mechanical energy, wh ...

. The Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge crosses the Ohio River at the island. The island does not otherwise connect to the land, and all vehicular traffic must use a ferry to access the island. The employees of the power plant use a pedestrian walkway on the railroad bridge to go to work. The walkway is not accessible to the public. From 1903 to 1914, the island was the home of

Brunots Island Race Track Brunots Island Race Track was a one-mile dirt oval on Brunot Island in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It hosted races from 1903 to 1914, including a race in 1905 AAA Championship Car season won by Louis Chevrolet. It is now the site of a fossil-fuel ...

Brunot Island Generating Station

*Type: Fossil fuel; oil and natural gas *Net capacity: 315 MW (

megawatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Watt ...

) *Began operation: 1972 *Current owner:

NRG Energy NRG Energy, Inc. is an American energy company, headquartered in Houston, Texas. It was formerly the wholesale arm of Northern States Power Company (NSP), which became Xcel Energy, but became independent in 2000. NRG Energy is involved in energ ...

Plants

*Three oil-fired

simple cycle In graph theory, a cycle in a graph is a non-empty trail in which only the first and last vertices are equal. A directed cycle in a directed graph is a non-empty directed trail in which only the first and last vertices are equal. A graph witho ...

peaking power plant Peaking power plants, also known as peaker plants, and occasionally just "peakers", are power plants that generally run only when there is a high demand, known as peak demand, for electricity. Because they supply power only occasionally, the power ...

s **Total generating capacity: 53 MW *One natural-gas-fired

combined cycle A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas turb ...

power plant **Total generating capacity: 262 MW

References

WPXI ReportReliant Energy's website

External links

Brunot Island

Pittsburgh Neighborhood Profile: Brunot Island

Pittsburgh Neighborhoods: History of Brunot Island

We Take Brunot in the Morning!

Airgun Accident

Brunot Island Once Hosted Explorers, Automobile Races And Now, Lots Of Wildlife
{{authority control Geography of Pittsburgh River islands of Pennsylvania Islands of the Ohio River Islands of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania NRG Energy