The United States Department of Energy (DOE) will provide more than $38 million in incentive payments for 66 hydro facilities across the country as part of President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda.
Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and with consideration of facilities located in communities with inadequate electric service, the incentives are offered for electricity generated and sold from dams and other water infrastructure that add or expand hydroelectric power-generating capabilities, the DOE said in a media release.
These incentive payments represent the DOE’s largest investment in hydroelectric facilities to date, according to the agency.
“Hydropower is one of the nation’s original sources of renewable energy and President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is providing transformative funding to help protect this existing clean energy infrastructure,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm. “Today’s announcement supports waterpower’s continued growth while maintaining and expanding good-paying jobs and increasing access to affordable, clean power where it is needed most”.
Hydropower currently accounts for 28.7 percent of renewable electricity generation in the US, as well as 93 percent of all utility-scale energy storage capacity. However, the DOE said that less than three percent 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 country’s electric system—enough to power 4.8 million homes, it said.
The latest round of incentives is part of the Hydroelectric Production Incentives, administered by the DOE’s Grid Deployment Office. The incentives are part of a comprehensive program funded by a $750 million investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support the continued operation of the US hydropower fleet and ensure a more reliable and resilient electric grid system, the DOE said.
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, the exploration of new small hydropower opportunities and salary and benefits for the hydropower workforce, the DOE said.
The DOE simultaneously announced the release of the updated Hydropower Vision Roadmap, which states that with continued technology advancements, innovative market mechanisms, and a focus on environmental sustainability, US hydropower could grow from its current 101 gigawatts (GW) to nearly 150 GW of combined electricity generation and storage capacity by 2050. The roadmap lays out specific activities identified by the hydropower community to achieve this goal by 2050, according to the DOE.
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