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Released August 23, 2022 | SUGAR LAND
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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that the Biden administration had allocated $28 million to hydropower research and development. The funds are intended to help the U.S. move closer to the administration's goal of net-zero emissions from the U.S. power sector by 2035 and a fully net-zero economy by 2050.
While the large majority of active renewable energy projects in the U.S. are for wind and solar power, hydropower remains a key player in power generation in the country, accounting for 31.5% of U.S. renewable electricity generation and about 6.3% of overall generation, according to the DOE. The funding is intended to ensure that this form of renewable power is more utilized and could help see movement on some of the $114 billion in U.S. hydro projects currently being tracked by Industrial Info.
Among the stipulations of the funding is further research and development on pumped-storage hydropower, in which water is pumped to a higher elevation at times of low power demand and released through turbines to generate power at times of higher demand. The funding allocates $10 million specifically for pumped-storage development. While much press is being allocated toward battery energy storage systems using lithium-ion batteries as a form of energy storage, the DOE reports that, in fact, pumped-storage hydropower presently represents 93% of energy storage in the U.S.
Pumped-storage projects account for the largest total investment value of hydro projects being tracked by IIR, clocking in at more than $98 billion. However, none of these projects are under construction, and all are in the planning stage. In addition, Industrial Info has rated none of these projects as having a high probability (81-99%) chance of moving forward as planned. All are rated as low- or medium-probability, meaning 0% to 80% of proceeding.
The problem? Most of the pumped storage projects being studied are very large-scale and come with price tags of more than $1 billion--making funding and project justification more of a challenge.
Many of the publicly traded companies looking into pumped-storage projects have other blockbuster projects or priorities underway. Dominion Energy Incorporated (NYSE:D) (Richmond, Virginia), for example, has its grassroot, 870-megawatt (MW) Tazewell hybrid energy center in Virginia on the table, which would use pumped-storage technology. However, the company is obviously much more focused on its 2.6-gigawatt (GW) Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project.
Southern Company (NYSE:SO) (Atlanta, Georgia) and its subsidiary Alabama Power Company (Birmingham) are in the planning process for the Chandler Mountain pumped-storage project near Steele, Alabama, but movement is unlikely to be seen on the project until Southern completes the vastly over-budget and much delayed units 3 and 4 at the Vogtle nuclear power station in Waynesboro, Georgia.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project Database can click here for more details on the Tazewell, Chandler Mountain, CVOW and Vogtle projects.
The funding also will go toward researching technologies to retrofit existing non-powered dams. Industrial Info is tracking a few projects; however, all are still in the planning or engineering stage. Examples include US Renewables Group's (Santa Monica, California) Grays Landing Lock & Dam hydro project in Masontown, Pennsylvania. The project aims to construct a run-of-river hydropower plant at an existing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lock and dam by installing two horizontal-bulb Kaplan turbines to generate 12.9 MW. The project remains some years from fruition, with an estimated kickoff date in 2027 and a 2029 completion date. Subscribers can click here for more details.
So while a large number of hydro projects are set for a future kickoff, what exactly is happening in the U.S. hydropower sector at the moment? Companies are upgrading and modernizing existing hydro assets that often have been in operation for several years. For example, at its 1-GW Bad Creek pumped-storage plant in Salem, South Carolina, which has been in operation since the early 1990s, Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK) (Charlotte, North Carolina) is underway with a modernization project that entails replacing turbine runners and performing generator rewinds to increase power by 200 MW and extend the plant's service life. The project has been underway since 2019 and is expected to wrap up later this year.
Duke is considering further expanding the storage and generating capacity of the Bad Creek plant by 1.7 GW by constructing new upper and lower reservoirs and four additional generating units. However, like other large pumped-storage projects in the U.S., the project remains in the early planning stage, and construction, if it happens, would be a number of years off. Subscribers can click here for more information on the Bad Creek hydro projects.
Similar hydro projects under construction in the U.S. include Tennessee Valley Authority's (Knoxville, Tennessee) modernization of its Fort Loudon hydropower station in Lenoir City, Tennessee, about 30 miles southeast of Knoxville. The project entails replacing two turbines and rewinding the generators to increase power generation by 8 MW per unit. The project kicked off earlier this year and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2023. Subscribers can click here for more details.
While many hydropower projects underway in the U.S. are smaller-scale endeavors, several blockbuster projects exceeding $1 billion or $2 billion are on the table, and the Biden administration's allocation of funding to be used specifically for hydropower generation could help some of these projects eventually see the light of day.
Subscribers can click here for a look at all of the projects mentioned in this article, and here for the plant profiles.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
While the large majority of active renewable energy projects in the U.S. are for wind and solar power, hydropower remains a key player in power generation in the country, accounting for 31.5% of U.S. renewable electricity generation and about 6.3% of overall generation, according to the DOE. The funding is intended to ensure that this form of renewable power is more utilized and could help see movement on some of the $114 billion in U.S. hydro projects currently being tracked by Industrial Info.
Among the stipulations of the funding is further research and development on pumped-storage hydropower, in which water is pumped to a higher elevation at times of low power demand and released through turbines to generate power at times of higher demand. The funding allocates $10 million specifically for pumped-storage development. While much press is being allocated toward battery energy storage systems using lithium-ion batteries as a form of energy storage, the DOE reports that, in fact, pumped-storage hydropower presently represents 93% of energy storage in the U.S.
Pumped-storage projects account for the largest total investment value of hydro projects being tracked by IIR, clocking in at more than $98 billion. However, none of these projects are under construction, and all are in the planning stage. In addition, Industrial Info has rated none of these projects as having a high probability (81-99%) chance of moving forward as planned. All are rated as low- or medium-probability, meaning 0% to 80% of proceeding.
The problem? Most of the pumped storage projects being studied are very large-scale and come with price tags of more than $1 billion--making funding and project justification more of a challenge.
Many of the publicly traded companies looking into pumped-storage projects have other blockbuster projects or priorities underway. Dominion Energy Incorporated (NYSE:D) (Richmond, Virginia), for example, has its grassroot, 870-megawatt (MW) Tazewell hybrid energy center in Virginia on the table, which would use pumped-storage technology. However, the company is obviously much more focused on its 2.6-gigawatt (GW) Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project.
Southern Company (NYSE:SO) (Atlanta, Georgia) and its subsidiary Alabama Power Company (Birmingham) are in the planning process for the Chandler Mountain pumped-storage project near Steele, Alabama, but movement is unlikely to be seen on the project until Southern completes the vastly over-budget and much delayed units 3 and 4 at the Vogtle nuclear power station in Waynesboro, Georgia.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project Database can click here for more details on the Tazewell, Chandler Mountain, CVOW and Vogtle projects.
The funding also will go toward researching technologies to retrofit existing non-powered dams. Industrial Info is tracking a few projects; however, all are still in the planning or engineering stage. Examples include US Renewables Group's (Santa Monica, California) Grays Landing Lock & Dam hydro project in Masontown, Pennsylvania. The project aims to construct a run-of-river hydropower plant at an existing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lock and dam by installing two horizontal-bulb Kaplan turbines to generate 12.9 MW. The project remains some years from fruition, with an estimated kickoff date in 2027 and a 2029 completion date. Subscribers can click here for more details.
So while a large number of hydro projects are set for a future kickoff, what exactly is happening in the U.S. hydropower sector at the moment? Companies are upgrading and modernizing existing hydro assets that often have been in operation for several years. For example, at its 1-GW Bad Creek pumped-storage plant in Salem, South Carolina, which has been in operation since the early 1990s, Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK) (Charlotte, North Carolina) is underway with a modernization project that entails replacing turbine runners and performing generator rewinds to increase power by 200 MW and extend the plant's service life. The project has been underway since 2019 and is expected to wrap up later this year.
Duke is considering further expanding the storage and generating capacity of the Bad Creek plant by 1.7 GW by constructing new upper and lower reservoirs and four additional generating units. However, like other large pumped-storage projects in the U.S., the project remains in the early planning stage, and construction, if it happens, would be a number of years off. Subscribers can click here for more information on the Bad Creek hydro projects.
Similar hydro projects under construction in the U.S. include Tennessee Valley Authority's (Knoxville, Tennessee) modernization of its Fort Loudon hydropower station in Lenoir City, Tennessee, about 30 miles southeast of Knoxville. The project entails replacing two turbines and rewinding the generators to increase power generation by 8 MW per unit. The project kicked off earlier this year and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2023. Subscribers can click here for more details.
While many hydropower projects underway in the U.S. are smaller-scale endeavors, several blockbuster projects exceeding $1 billion or $2 billion are on the table, and the Biden administration's allocation of funding to be used specifically for hydropower generation could help some of these projects eventually see the light of day.
Subscribers can click here for a look at all of the projects mentioned in this article, and here for the plant profiles.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
