Exemplary Design Envelope Specification for Standard Modular Hydropower Technology

Technical Report · Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1343525· OSTI ID:1343525

Witt, Adam M. ^[1]; Smith, Brennan T. ^[1]; Tsakiris, Achilleas ^[2]; Papanicolaou, Thanos ^[2]; Pries, Jason L. ^[1]; Burress, Timothy A. ^[1]; Stewart, Kevin M. ^[1]; Lee, Kyutae ^[1]; DeNeale, Scott T. ^[1]; Bevelhimer, Mark S. ^[1]; Pracheil, Brenda M. ^[1]; McManamay, Ryan A. ^[1]; Ekici, Kivanc ^[2]; Kutz, Benjamin ^[2]; Curd, Shelaine L. ^[1]; Bishop, Norm ^[3]; Welch, Tim ^[4]; Rabon, Daniel ^[4]; Fernandez, Alisha ^[5]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
3. Knight Piesold, Denver, CO (United States)
4. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Washington, DC (United States). Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
5. McKeown and Associates, Moberly, MO (United States)

Hydropower is an established, affordable renewable energy generation technology supplying nearly 18% of the electricity consumed globally. A hydropower facility interacts continuously with the surrounding water resource environment, causing alterations of varying magnitude in the natural flow of water, energy, fish, sediment, and recreation upstream and downstream. A universal challenge in facility design is balancing the extraction of useful energy and power system services from a stream with the need to maintain ecosystem processes and natural environmental function. On one hand, hydroelectric power is a carbon-free, renewable, and flexible asset to the power system. On the other, the disruption of longitudinal connectivity and the artificial barrier to aquatic movement created by hydraulic structures can produce negative impacts that stress fresh water environments. The growing need for carbon-free, reliable, efficient distributed energy sources suggests there is significant potential for hydropower projects that can deploy with low installed costs, enhanced ecosystem service offerings, and minimal disruptions of the stream environment.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1343525
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM-2016/298; WC0102000; CEWW099
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

13 HYDRO ENERGY
Exemplary Desing Envelope Standard Modular Hydropower