From Our Blogs

WPTO today announced over $16 million in new projects to further hydropower and marine energy research and development. These awards encompass $5.6 million for hydropower and $10.5 million for marine energy projects across six national laboratories.

Since winning the Furthering Advancements to Shorten Time Commissioning for Pumped Storage Hydropower Prize in 2019, three teams continued testing, completed further analysis, and identified potential sites for their technologies.

On Dec. 1, 2022, WPTO will host a webinar to explore the water power topics in Phase One of the Fiscal Year 2023 Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Program. Speakers will discuss these topics and answer questions.

It was summer football training that brought Christopher Ruhl to mechanical engineering. Now a Ph.D. candidate and fellow in the Marine Energy Graduate Student Research Program, he uses those skills to study turbulence and and how it affects tidal energy.

WPTO announced an opportunity for hydropower developers and other stakeholders to receive technical assistance to address valuation hurdles in pumped storage hydropower project development and for challenges related to the HydroWIRES mission.

$4 million funding opportunity aims to reduce the environmental impacts of hydropower with research to advance innovative fish passage and protection technologies.

At age 17, Claire Gonzales took her first deep ocean dive. Now, as a 2022 fellow in the Marine Energy Graduate Student Research Program, she works on co-locating marine energy with fisheries to help the world protect the ocean one ripple at a time.

Since winning the Fish Protection Prize, three teams have further developed their innovative concepts, which have the potential to help modernize hydropower facilities and protect fish from water diversion pipes and dam intakes across the country.

WPTO announces six winners in the second phase of the Hydropower Operations Optimization Prize. These teams developed high-tech solutions to improve hydropower operations and grid resiliency. The prize’s third and final phase is now open!

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, with funding from WPTO, recently completed the most comprehensive study into the effects of drought on hydropower generation in the United States this century.