Untapped US Dams Could Add 15.2 TWh of Hydropower, Study Finds
Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory have identified 15.2 terawatt-hours of untapped hydropower potential at existing US dams, enough electricity to power more than 1.4 million homes, without building a single new dam, OilPrice.com reports. The findings come from a new modeling tool called HydroGenerate, which combines water flow data from the US Geological Survey and Oak Ridge to assess retrofit potential dam by dam, accounting for constraints like flood control and navigation requirements.
Only 3% of US dams currently generate power. Most of the dams flagged as suitable for retrofitting sit in the Great Lakes basin and the upper Mississippi River, and 86% are federal facilities, according to the report. Separately, the Department of Energy’s Hydropower and Hydrokinetic Office awarded $5.5 million across 11 national laboratory projects last month to streamline licensing, with about 16 GW of existing hydropower capacity facing relicensing over the next decade, per the National Hydropower Association.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- Heavy-civil, mechanical, and electrical subs should watch for retrofit and turbine installation packages emerging at non-powered federal dams, concentrated in the Great Lakes basin and upper Mississippi River region rather than traditional hydropower states like Washington or California.
- Firms with hydropower licensing or environmental permitting experience can position now, since the DOE’s $5.5 million licensing-speedup initiative and the 16 GW relicensing backlog signal a coming wave of compliance and engineering work at existing facilities.
- Because 86% of identified retrofit-ready dams are federal facilities, subs should track federal procurement channels and Army Corps or Bureau of Reclamation contract vehicles rather than private utility RFPs for this pipeline.
