The Hydropower RAPID Toolkit is a one-stop shop for essential permitting information, allowing developers to navigate the complex system of federal and state regulations and permits with ease.
Providing project permitting process information for hydropower developers.
Navigating the complex system of federal and state regulations to secure project approvals can be one of the biggest hurdles hydropower developers face. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hydropower Regulatory and Permitting Information Desktop (RAPID) Toolkit offers a solution.
The Hydropower RAPID Toolkit makes permitting information easily accessible from one online location. The Hydropower RAPID Toolkit:
- Features links to permit applications, processes, manuals, and related information
- Presents information on federal and state permits and regulatory approvals required for the development of hydropower projects
- Provides best practices to help navigate the regulatory process
- Helps potentially reduce the permitting timeline by facilitating communication among all project stakeholders—project developers, permitting agency personnel at all jurisdiction levels, and the public
- Helps potentially lower total project costs and investor risk by clarifying the permitting process, which encourages future hydropower development.
Photo by Werner Slocum, NREL
Developed by Experts
The Hydropower RAPID Toolkit is developed by a team of experts from DOE and its national laboratories, led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, with input from stakeholders that can benefit from access to a hydropower permitting roadmap and best-practice documentation. These include:
- Hydropower permitting agencies including those within the Federal Inland Hydropower Working Group and appropriate state agencies
- Developers
- Manufacturers
- Consultants.
This collaborative process encourages federal and state regulatory agencies as well as other industry stakeholders to review and coordinate the permitting process for both small and large conventional hydropower, run-of-river hydropower, in-conduit, and pumped storage projects.