PNNL

You are invited to join the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) for the Alternative Opportunities for Hydropower Workshop, a meeting that will engage attendees from a wide range of stakeholders, including resource owners, hydropower developers, government entities, utilities, irrigation districts, NGOs, tribes, and industry professionals.

Funded by WPTO, over the past few years researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory have been investigating New Value Propositions for small hydropower in the Innovations for Low-Impact Hydropower Growth portfolio. The team has identified five core opportunities where small hydropower can provide unique benefits:

We are looking forward to sharing more about these opportunities as well as hearing from you about how we can best study, communicate, and implement hydropower projects that enable a broader suite of benefits. You can find more information on our project website.

The workshop will provide an opportunity to discuss:

• Identified alternative opportunities
• New value propositions that can make them feasible
• Challenges in developing these projects
• Future research needed to encourage wider implementation.

The goals of the workshop are to:

• Spark discussion about how WPTO can best support these opportunity areas moving forward, based on stakeholder needs
• Identify partnerships and resources needed to implement these projects
• Chart pathways to broaden deployment.

The workshop will be held virtually on June 27th and 28th, 2022 from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm PT. A detailed final agenda will be provided closer to the event. If you are unable to attend, please propose a delegate for consideration. Recorded presentations and materials will be made available after the workshop.

For more information about the Alternative Opportunities for Hydropower project, watch the recorded webinar, “Alternative Opportunities for Hydropower – Advancing hydropower’s unique, untapped value beyond traditional electricity production and distribution,” which was part of the WPTO Research and Development Deep Dive Webinar Series held on May 19, 2022. Click the link below to view a pdf of the webinar presentation: 

Please direct any questions to Lara Aston.