Hydro projects hold much promise

Wherever fresh or salt water flows, there is power to be harnessed, and last week there were 2,000 harness makers in town anxious to throw cold water on the idea that hydroelectricity is the renewable energy of the past.

Waterpower XVI, the National Hydropower Association’s annual convention, attracted attendees from 40 countries to its seminars, meetings and technical tours, including “SOLD OUT” trips to Grand Coulee Dam and Avista Utilities’ Long Lake Project. Hope the buses were air-conditioned.

Exhibitors filled the Convention Hall with pipes, valves, turbine blades and other hardware and software. And almost in the middle was a map hydropower advocates say illustrates the enormous, untapped resource at flood-control and navigation dams in the United States that were never fitted out for electricity generation.

Of the nation’s 79,000 dams, only 3 percent produce electricity, said association President Andrew Munro, who also is a spokesman for the Grant County Public Utility District. Even if environmentally sensitive sites are ruled out, as well as those more than one mile from a road or transmission line, as much as 200,000 megawatts of potential generation remains, he said.

That’s double the output of existing dams.

Munro says hydropower output has been flat-lined for years. That’s going to change, he says, and more consideration from the federal government would help.

Last year’s energy bill, for example, qualified hydropower for the production tax credits that spurred development of wind and solar power. But hydro gets 1 cent per kilowatt, not wind and solar’s 2 cents. Although the economic stimulus package extended the credits two years to 2013, that is not far enough out for utilities considering the big capital expenditures dam or generator upgrades require, Munro adds.

Like pump storage development, which in the Northwest could turn nighttime winds into daytime power by using the electricity to pump water into reservoirs. When demand for electricity peaks during the day, the water could be released to enhance hydrogeneration.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu is a big fan, and Munro says the Bonneville Power Administration will hold a meeting this month to start looking at the opportunities for pump storage in the region.

Meanwhile, Avista and Grant County PUD are adding megawatts to their systems just by upgrading the dams they already have. At the PUD’s Wanapum project, the new turbines are being built by Voith Hydro, which is based in York, Penn.

Voith President E. Mark Garner says that work and new turbines for Ohio River projects have allowed the company to boost employment 27 percent in one year, to more than 550. He says the industry has commissioned a study that should show just how many new jobs might be created by more aggressive national support for hydropower.

New hydro is getting support from an unlikely source, American Rivers, the environmental organization better known for supporting dam removal. John Seebach, director of the organization’s hydro reform initiative, says American Rivers and the association have come to a common understanding on what kinds of new developments are appropriate. He notes, too, that the group supported extending tax credits to hydro projects.

“It comes down to responsible siting, responsible operations,” Seebach says.

We can all raise a glass of cold water to that.