Biden-Harris Administration Announces More Than $38 Million to Support Hydropower Facilities Across the Country
President Biden’s Investing in America agenda has granted 66 hydro facilities throughout the country more than $38 million in incentive payments for electricity generated and sold.
According to The Department of Energy, hydropower currently accounts for 28.7% of renewable electricity generation in the United States, as well as 93% of all utility-scale energy storage capacity. However, less than 3% of the nation’s more than 90,000 dams currently produce power. Adding generation equipment to these sites could add up to 12 gigawatts of new hydropower capacity to the U.S. electric system—enough to power 4.8 million homes.
Hydroelectric Incentives Program
The Hydroelectric Production Incentives, administered by DOE’s Grid Deployment Office, are part of a comprehensive program funded by a $750 million investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support the continued operation of the U.S. hydropower fleet and ensure a more reliable and resilient electric grid system. Other program offerings are the Hydroelectric Efficiency Improvement Incentives and Maintaining & Enhancing Hydroelectricity Incentives. Originally started in 2014 and expanded under the Biden-Harris Administration, Hydropower Incentives have been used to support operations and maintenance, fees and service debts, exploration of new small hydropower opportunities, as well as salary and benefits for the hydropower workforce.
A full list of selected entities is available here.
Today, DOE also released the reimagined Hydropower Vision Roadmap, led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office. With the release of the Hydropower Vision report (Vision) in 2016, DOE made a commitment to the hydropower community to make the Vision a living document. To uphold that commitment, WPTO and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory reimagined the Vision’s roadmap with the support of the hydropower community. The Vision stated that with continued technology advancements, innovative market mechanisms, and a focus on environmental sustainability, U.S. hydropower could grow from its current 101 gigawatts (GW) to nearly 150 GW of combined electricity generating and storage capacity by 2050. The roadmap lays out the specific activities identified by the hydropower community to achieve those goals by 2050.
