by Brianna Crandall — April 29, 2015—On Monday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the 2014 Hydropower Market Report, which it says is the first-ever report to quantify the current size, scope, and variability of our nation’s hydroelectric power supplies. Hydropower currently provides approximately seven percent of the U.S. electricity supply—enough to power more than 20 million homes, and has experienced significant growth industry-wide, according to the report.
For more than 100 years, hydropower has delivered a source of clean, renewable electricity in almost every state. Today, it plays a key role in providing flexibility to the nation’s power grids, allowing utility operators to quickly fulfill spikes in electrical demand—such as those caused by summer heat waves, making hydropower a vital asset to many states’ energy portfolios.
Within the last decade, the industry has supported more than 55,000 direct domestic jobs across the country, and helped offset 200 million metric tons of carbon emissions per year, equivalent to the emissions from more than 42 million passenger vehicles. The report also highlights how hydropower can be rapidly integrated with other renewable energy sources into the electric grid—contributing to the Obama Administration’s goal of doubling the nation’s renewable energy supply again by 2020.
“This report outlines the diversity of our nation’s hydropower fleet, shows its tremendous contribution to the U.S. clean energy mix, and points to promising future growth,” said Danielson. “With an expanding industry and continued investment, hydropower remains one of our nation’s most cost-effective and reliable sources of renewable energy and provides an important tool for boosting our clean energy supply.”
The 2014 Hydropower Market Report highlights the critical investment of more than $6 billion throughout the last decade to strengthen the existing hydropower fleet. Today, the hydropower manufacturing supply chain spreads across 38 states, with more than 170 companies producing one or more of six major hydropower components: turbines, generators, transformers, penstocks, gates, and valves.
The report shows that America has more than 77 gigawatts (GW) of untapped hydropower resource potential, and that the vast majority of new hydropower projects built over the last decade have added electric generating equipment to dams that were previously not powered.
The current development pipeline contains a mixture of projects proposed at non-powered dams, conduits, and previously undeveloped rivers and streams, as well as more than 50 pumped-storage hydropower projects, which function as large energy storage systems for other clean energy sources.
More information about hydropower technologies can be found on the Water Power Program’s hydropower research and development Web page. The Energy 101 video explains how hydropower works.
