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--Studying how hydropower—both conventional and pumped storage—can meet current and future transmission needs.  DOE is seeking an industry-led partnership with NGOs, government agencies, and/or universities to model the interactions of conventional and pumped storage hydropower projects on the transmission grid with the goal of shaping future policy decisions, as well as developing a better understanding of how current and future hydropower fits in with different market structures.  The bottom line is that this research would increase the understanding of hydropower’s value in the overall national energy portfolio as well as the understanding of hydropower’s roll and integration into variable renewable energy sources.  The total possible grant for this study is $3m over two years—and is expected to be awarded to one applicant.

--Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of novel approaches to environmental impact mitigation at hydroelectric facilities.  DOE is expecting to grant awards of $500,000 to $750,000 to up to six industry participants for this purpose—with the overall goal of identifying novel environmental mitigation measures that are more effective and efficient than their traditional counterparts as well as measures that are widely applicable across the industry in the United States.  These studies must be either industry-led, or industry partnerships with utilities, technology developers, consulting companies, private research institutes, or governmental laboratories or universities.

--A request for proposals to increase academic research in areas related to conventional hydropower or pumped storage hydropower.  DOE recognized that academic research and graduate training opportunities in these areas are stagnant or declining, and is asking for proposals from universities, research institutes, foundations or non-profit organizations to manage a competitive fellowship program to support graduate students studying topics in these areas.  This is a solicitation for managing a grant program, and the funding ($1 million for FY2009 and equivalent funds for 2010 and 2011 subject to future appropriations) appears to not be aimed at funding graduate research directly, but at creating a steering committee to guide future grants and increase academic research.

These funding opportunities come at a time when pumped storage is receiving increasing interest.  A quick review of applications filed with FERC indicates there over thirty pumped storage projects planned nationwide—mostly in the western half of the country.  Pumped storage is an attractive technology because it allows for load balancing by pumping water uphill to a storage facility during low load periods and use of that stored water power during periods of high demand.

Installation of conventional hydropower facilities at existing irrigation impoundments is also receiving increased attention because retrofitting such facilities would result in exploiting this unused resource without the need to create new impoundments.  The Electric Power Research Institute cites a conservative estimate of 16,000 megawatts of additional generating capacity could be developed through installation of hydropower at existing dams--and notes that the actual resource may be much greater because this estimate is based on only 2,500 of the 79,000 non-hydropower dams in the United States.  Regardless, this represents at least a 20% increase over existing hydropower generating capacity in the United States.

DOE’s funding announcement will support the development of both of these resources, and seems to be a recognition of the role hydropower can play in meeting the nation’s future energy needs.  The complete text of the announcement is available here.