Hydropower News

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.

Hydropower plants produce energy using the elevation difference created by a dam or diversion structure. Water flows in one side and exits at a lower point, which spins a turbine that runs a generator. Learn six things about hydropower’s potential.

With back-to-school season in full swing, WPTO offers a range of educational resources to teach students of all ages about hydropower and highlights programs designed for those about to embark on their clean energy careers.