Such positive outcomes can be directly linked to a project impact or achieved by improving something completely unaffected by the project, making enhancements to the area.

Finally, plants can be constructed to be “closed-loop” (or adjacent to waterways) to cut down on permitting time and minimize environmental impacts.

While there is a possibility that some of these hurdles can be overcome with recent legislation, the study rightly concludes that it will be much easier to increase efficiency in the existing hydropower fleet than to build new capacity.
Project compliance with national legislation is almost never a problem, because meeting legislation is a legal requirement.

(Wind, solar and natural gas capacity grew faster, while coal and oil declined and nuclear was essentially flat.).
The post is now in your clipboard. One solution has emerged at Mirror Lake in Dover, Delaware. The Penobscot is a rare case in which the concept of “ basin planning ” has been applied to hydropower reform. A longstanding advisory warns against consuming fish from the lake — a condition common to thousands of reservoirs worldwide.

Upgrading plants to have variable or adjusted speed drives also alters the ability of those units to meet different kinds of demands, including more rapid response and variability management. Lead image: Hydroelectric dam via Shutterstock. The Penobscot River in Maine illustrates the potential. Hi Ben, and thanks for that great question. But adding fish ladders often exceeds the original construction cost of some large dams. Hydropower provides 85 percent of the world’s renewable electricity, but comes with a hefty environmental price tag. That’s a shift in focus that may become a lot more common in the hydropower world. There are about 2,200 dams in the U.S. producing hydropower, and about 85,000 that don’t. Again, there is net value added from increasing the use of flexible reserves, although the monetary trade-off between decreasing wear-and-tear on thermal plants and increasing use of hydropower plants is unclear. The basics of hydropower haven’t changed much in 120 years. When we need it, the water spins magnets past a coil of copper wire to give us heat, light and entertainment. Sub-hourly scheduling encourages wider participation and flexibility compensation. The Penobscot is a rare case in which the concept of “basin planning” has been applied to hydropower reform. “Hydro is going to continue to grow and has a lot of future opportunity that most people just aren’t aware of.”. Such variable flows also please those who like river recreation, such as rafters and kayakers. Because the current market structure benefits fossil fuel generators, whose output is time independent. Yes, dams use vast amounts of concrete, which has cement as its "glue." For example, short periods of high-velocity water releases have been conducted at Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River to mobilize accumulated sediment in the river channel, helping restore riparian habitat. In other words, since hydropower provides transmission support in addition to generation, financial compensation could be awarded for these services.

They argue other sustainable energy sources have evolved as better alternatives. While basin planning has been applied successfully to new hydropower development — notably by the Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1930s — its application to contemporary biodiversity and sustainability challenges is still rare. Many also have flood protection as a primary function, so water storage levels and release practices are governed by rigid safety rules.

One way to make dams more sustainable is to not build new ones, but instead modify non-powered dams, like the Opekiska Lock and Dam in West Virginia (pictured here), to generate electricity. A proposal in California is approaching basinwide water challenges differently. So compromises include trap-and-haul programs, in which fish are collected and transported by tanker truck around dams, and motorized lifts in various configurations. Rather than focus on improving a single dam, basin planning examines all the dams in a river basin or watershed to find solutions at the ecosystem scale. In the U.S. — where in 2014 hydropower provided a little more than 6 percent of total electricity generation and made up about 48 percent of renewable generation, according to the DOE — hydropower capacity grew by 1.5 GW in the decade prior to 2015, reaching a total of 100 GW, according to the Energy Information Administration. The study finds that squeezing more efficiency out of existing hydropower assets can lead to more flexibility on the power grid; flexibility that is essential given the increasing amounts of solar and wind power being integrated into the electricity system. Why? Comments on that? We take a look at each of these project criteria, and outline some considerations that are commonly overlooked by project developers, giving advice about how to improve a protocol assessment result. Sign up now for our bi-weekly newsletter and you'll get the latest stories from Ensia delivered straight to your inbox. This situation ignores the synergistic potential of hydropower, particularly in the context of variable resources.

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