DOE Investing More Than $13M in Hydropower Projects

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Energy is investing more than $13 million in seven research and development projects focused on advancing hydropower as a critical source of clean energy. 

The funding comes from the bipartisan infrastructure law. It will be used to test and install new advanced technology that will enable the generation of power at dams that currently have no capacity to do so, and accelerate the expansion of pumped storage hydropower. 

“For more than a century, Americans have harnessed the power of water to electrify our communities, and it’s a critical renewable energy source that will help us reach our climate goals,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in a written statement. 

The funding will support organizations to accelerate hydropower research and development for non-powered dam and PSH technologies to make them more affordable, environmentally responsible and deployable. 

Surprisingly, of the more than 90,000 dams in the United States, less than 3% produce power. 

These dams serve a range of purposes from flood control and irrigation to water storage and recreation and represent the potential to add thousands of megawatts of clean energy to the grid. 

PSH currently accounts for 93% of U.S. utility-scale energy storage and will be a key tool to balance a grid with an increasing amount of variable resources such as wind and solar.

The seven selected projects focus on developing technologies to retrofit non-powered dams with environmentally sustainable power-generating infrastructure.

For instance, the Electric Power Research Institute, based in Palo Alto, California, will test two models of the Amjet Turbine System, a turbine/generator system designed to add power-generating infrastructure to non-powered dams, at the Keokuk Energy Center, a run-of-river project in Iowa. 

In addition, Spillway Turbine, of Pasco, Washington, and Emrgy, based in Atlanta, Georgia, will develop a turbine to generate hydropower at non-powered dams where the water drop is less than 30 feet or in low-flow conduits, such as existing irrigation canals. 

The technology’s design is such that no modifications to a facility’s existing infrastructure would be necessary. The company will demonstrate this technology in the South Columbia Basin, the Energy Department said.

Among the projects aimed at advancing and developing technologies that could accelerate the deployment of PSH is one involving the Georgia Power Co. of Atlanta, Georgia, which is aiming to accelerate the development and deployment of PSH facilities across the United States by developing a utility-scale solution to retrofit traditional hydropower facilities to serve as PSH facilities. 

The company will demonstrate this approach in the Bartletts Ferry Hydropower Facility in Salem, Alabama.

Another firm, RCAM Technologies, of Boulder, Colorado, is striving to develop an innovative offshore PSH technology. 

Specifically, it is working to advance its Marine Pumped Hydroelectric Storage System toward commercialization by funding the device through design, fabrication and deepwater ocean testing off the Port of Los Angeles. 

MPH works by storing pressurized seawater in concrete spheres on the seafloor and releasing that water to spin a turbine and generate electricity. 

Company officials have suggested that by building PSH offshore, MPH reduces some of the siting and permitting challenges that have hindered the growth of PSH. 

Quidnet Energy Inc., of Houston, Texas, will demonstrate the feasibility of a novel PSH technology that stores pressurized water underground. 

This low-cost form of long-duration electricity storage uses existing wellbores, which offer an opportunity to repurpose legacy oil and gas assets. 

Next, an entity called Drops for Watts will develop a low-impact, modular system to generate hydropower from existing irrigation infrastructure. 

This system will be designed to have minimal impact on existing infrastructure and will not require any additional excavation. 

Finally, Hydro Turbines in Atlanta, Georgia, will use a digital twin, a virtual representation of existing instrumentation, to better predict common maintenance needs in hydropower turbines. 

The projects were selected as part of the Water Power Technologies Office’s Innovative Technologies to Enable Low-Impact Hydropower and Pumped Storage Hydropower Growth funding opportunity.

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