Hydropower from dams can help power the nation, says DOE report

by Shane Henson — April 23, 2012—The U.S. Department of Energy recently released a report whose findings may affect the future source of energy from local utilities and bring more renewable power into the mix. An Assessment of Energy Potential at Non-Powered Dams in the United States discusses the huge opportunities that exist to develop electric power generation at existing dams across the United States that aren’t currently equipped to produce power.

The DOE report analyzes more than 54,000 specific sites that could be developed to generate power, and estimates that without building a single new dam, these available hydropower resources, if fully developed, could provide an electrical generating capacity of more than 12 gigawatts (GW), equivalent to roughly 15 percent of current U.S. hydropower capacity. These findings demonstrate one of the ways the nation can diversify its energy portfolio while achieving the Administration’s goal of generating 80 percent of our nation’s electricity from clean resources by 2035, says the DOE.

The DOE says the greatest hydropower resource potential was found at lock and dam facilities on the Ohio, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas Rivers—facilities owned by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The top 10 sites alone have the potential to provide approximately 3 GW of generating capacity, while the top 100 sites together could potentially provide 8 GW of clean, reliable energy. Many of these dams could also likely be converted to power-generating facilities with minimal impact to critical species, habitats, parks or wilderness areas, notes the DOE.

The resource assessment also finds many potential hydropower sites are located in areas of the country with fewer wind or solar resources, giving nearby communities another way to secure renewable energy for local families and businesses. And because hydropower provides reliable baseload power day and night, developing existing dams could also provide flexibility and diversity to the electric grid and allow utilities to integrate other renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.