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Giving Old Dams New Life Could Spark an Energy Boom

Sunday May 8, 2022. 01:34 PM , from Slashdot
'Extreme drought has drastically reduced reservoir levels and is causing a decline in electricity production from hydropower,' reports the Washington Post.

'Yet while climate change has parched the West, these same forces have greatly increased precipitation in much of the Midwest, the South and the East. There, hydropower is gaining momentum, and supporters say that in many places it is poised for a big resurgence.' And the Post sees this benefiting 'a growing effort to retrofit so-called nonpowered dams, or any dams created for a need other than hydropower, for electricity production...'

In 2016, a U.S. Department of Energy study forecast that hydropower in the United States could expand from its current capacity of 101 gigawatts to nearly 150 gigawatts by 2050. This growth would come not from new dam construction but from upgrading existing hydroelectric resources, adding pumped storage capacity, and retrofitting nonpowered dams for hydropower.... Nonpowered dams compose the vast majority of America's dam infrastructure. They can be found across the country, come in all sizes and were built to address a wide array of needs, including flood control, navigation, water supply and recreation.

Out of the estimated 90,000 dams in the United States, about 2,200 of them generate hydroelectric power. These hydropower resources, however, account for 7 percent of national energy production and contribute 37 percent of the nation's renewable energy supply....

Solar and wind produce energy intermittently, but hydropower can operate day or night, 24/7. Some hydropower facilities can shut down or ramp up energy production very quickly, providing energy grids with stopgap flexibility during peak demand or in the case of blackouts.... The addition of hydropower to nonpowered dams can be financially attractive to developers. Typically the dam's operation is not changed, so there is usually much less opposition from communities and environmental groups than there would be to a new dam project.

The article points out that last year's U.S. infrastructure funding included money to add hydropower to 'nonpowered dams.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/22/05/07/2118214/giving-old-dams-new-life-could-spark-an-energy-...
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