U.S. DOE launches $28M hydropower research, development program

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced Friday it had launched a program to advance hydropower as a clean energy alternative.

The $28 million program would support research and development projects that will advance hydropower as a source of clean energy. Funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the program will offer three funding opportunities in the fall that will support research, development, and deployment of hydropower, including pumped storage hydropower.

“For over a century, hydropower has provided clean, cheap, and reliable energy to American households and businesses,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “Funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will ensure that hydropower continues to play as big a role in our clean energy future as it has in our past.”

The funding opportunities will support the testing of innovative technologies, development approaches, or construction techniques that will reduce time, costs, or risks associated with hydropower and pumped storage hydropower, the DOE said. Additionally, the funding will support projects that conduct studies to further develop and deploy permitted pumped storage hydropower projects and those that seek stakeholder insights to inform hydropower research.

Currently, hydropower accounts for 31.5 percent of America’s renewable electricity generation and a little more than 6 percent of the total U.S. electricity generation, while pumped storage hydropower accounts for 93 percent of the country’s utility-scale energy storage. Research by the DOE found that U.S. hydropower could expand by nearly 50 percent by 2050.

The DOE said the proposed funding opportunities would encourage sustainable growth of hydropower and pumped storage hydropower, expand pumped storage hydropower, and support stakeholders’ efforts to understand community-level issues affecting hydropower.