Ed Rendell admitted he would rather not have spent a couple of hours Monday morning traversing "crummy" back roads by car to attend a windswept ceremony overlooking the Susquehanna River.

But the governor was there, hobnobbing with other dignitaries in a fluttering white tent on a bluff above Holtwood hydroelectric plant.

The entourage was celebrating the start of a $434 million project that by 2013 will more than double the plant's capacity to generate electricity.

VIDEO: Rendell speaks at the groundbreaking for the Holtwood Dam expansion

"I just drove an hour and 15 minutes through some of the crummiest roads to get to a ceremony which absolutely didn't need my presence at all," Rendell told the crowd.

"But I wanted to be here because this is important. As Vice President Biden said to President Obama about the health care bill, this is a big deal," the governor joked, omitting Biden's R-rated YouTube gaffe.

"This project, I hope, will herald a new examination in this country of hydro power," said Rendell, who lamented that Canada generates 50 percent of its energy from hydroelectric plants, while the United States gets less than 10 percent of its power from hydro.

"I think this is an enormously significant event that will be a trailblazer," he said.

"Maybe not right away, but in the next few years, people will look back at the expansion of this plant as a real watershed for hydro power in this country."

Rendell praised the plant's owner, PPL Corp., for its growing commitment to renewable "green energy."

PPL chairman and CEO James Miller said the Holtwood expansion is the largest single renewable energy project under development in Pennsylvania.

The expansion "will have real meat-and-potatoes benefits for the economies of Lancaster and York counties," he said, by providing 200 high-paying construction jobs.

In addition, York-based Voith Hydro will provide major components of the two giant turbines that will be installed in the new powerhouse.

The Holtwood contract will generate more than 100,000 man-hours of work for Voith, president and CEO Edward Garner said.

Construction workers plan to remove 1.5 million cubic yards of rock to make way for a new hydroelectric powerhouse capable of generating 125 megawatts of electricity.

That's enough energy to power 100,000 homes for a year.

The new, "zero-emissions" powerhouse will be built on the site of a former coal-fired power plant shut down in 1999.

The existing hydroelectric plant, with a capacity of 108 megawatts, will continue to produce energy as it has since Holtwood went into service in 1910.

Lake Aldred, an 8-mile-long reservoir created by the dam, will not be affected by the construction.

The expansion also will include improvements to the dam's fish passage so that more shad and other migratory species can reach upstream spawning areas in the Susquehanna and its tributaries.

The plant expansion was originally planned for 2008 but was scrapped because of high costs and poor economic conditions.

PPL revived the proposal last year to take advantage of $100 million in tax credits for green energy projects in the federal economic stimulus package and strong support from the state.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved PPL's plans in November.

Rendell said Pennsylvania ranks third in the nation in producing new renewable energy jobs, but it still imports too much of its energy, spending $30 billion a year outside its borders on power.

"Imagine just for a minute what would happen to our economy if that $30 billion … was spent right here in Pennsylvania," he said. "It would be dramatic.

"We've got to continue pushing, all of us, not just in Pennsylvania but across this country, to create a green energy economy so that we can produce our electricity here in Pennsylvania and the United States and we can produce our jobs here."

Work on the expansion began in January and is expected to be completed by the spring of 2013.

The existing power plant will continue to operate during construction, but PPL has closed 460 wooded acres around the dam to public recreation for the duration of the project.

bwallace@lnpnews.com