Hydropower-General Learning Page- Hydropower General Learning Page
From Glen Canyon Dam AMP
State of the hydropower market
- There are 2,198 active U.S. hydropower facilities, representing 79.64 GW of capacity, by far the biggest of the renewables, according to DOE’s just-released "2014 Hydropower Market Report." Most of the capacity is in large projects built between 1930 and 1970.
- DOE’s 2014 Hydropower Market Report
- Federal agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, own nearly half of the capacity at very large dams. Publicly owned utilities, state agencies, and electric cooperatives own another 24% of capacity. The rest, mostly small sites, is privately owned.
- Half of U.S. capacity is in Washington, California, and Oregon. At least 84% of the facilities do double service in recreation, flood control, irrigation, navigation, and/or water supply.
- Production varies year to year and seasonally but 2013’s capacity factor was 39%, 2012’s was 40%, and 2011’s was 46%. The long term trend is toward a decreasing capacity factor due to the aging of facilities, the impact of environmental regulations, and reallocation of water.
- On the other hand, hydropower’s average availability factor is 5% to 10% higher in the summer when electricity demand is higher. And 39 GW of U.S. capacity is rated as highly flexible.
---
