To evaluate potential climate change effects on 132 federal hydropower plants in the United States, a spatially consistent assessment approach was designed to enable interregional comparisons.
Projects
To overcome the current gaps in hydropower fleet management data, researchers at ORNL are developing data-driven best practices that can be shared with hydropower facilities to optimize value and reliability.
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Development of global and domestic pumped storage hydropower has traditionally focused on construction of large, highly customized plants that provide more than 100 MW of electricity. However, these plants are costly and face significant challenges.
The goal of this project is to reduce pumped storage barriers through development of a novel technology.
To facilitate the expanded use of hydropower as a reliable and consistent source of renewable energy, researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are using a novel approach to monitor and determine biological and environmental impacts to aquatic species near hydropower facilities.
Permitting and regulation are necessary to ensure that hydropower projects comply with statutory requirements and meet multiple stakeholder priorities, which include other important water uses.
Recent small hydropower development in the United States has been concentrated on the powering of unpowered water resource infrastructure such as non-powered dams and irrigation canals.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory publishes the Hydropower Market Report on behalf of the US Department of Energy for the benefit of industry, policymakers, and the public.
Intake pipes, or penstock, for a hydropower plant. The penstock delivers water from a reservoir or river to hydro turbines inside the plant’s power station.
ORNL is analyzing the metrics used to assess the environmental effects of hydropower development, along with a river function framework and a decision support tool that can assist stakeholders in hydropower licensing and permitting.