Hydro Research Foundation University Research Awards Award Number: DE-EE0006506 CX(s) Applied: A9, A11 Water Power Program Date: 6/7/2016 Location(s): CO Office(s): Golden Field Office
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June 12, 2016
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Hydro Research Foundation University Research Awards
Award Number: DE-EE0006506
CX(s) Applied: A9, A11
Water Power Program
Date: 6/7/2016
Location(s): CO
Office(s): Golden Field Office
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to provide federal funding to the Hydro Research Foundation (HRF) to award grants to individual research projects through its University Research Awards Program to support innovative research related to conventional or pumped-storage hydropower, stimulate interest among students and universities in this research arena, and provide students with a foundation for productive careers related to the hydropower industry.
The awardee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) would use HRF grant funding provided by the DOE to investigate two areas: (1) the coordinated control of multiple small hydropower resources to improve the stability and capacity of the national grid; and (2) the utilization of small hydropower within solar-hydro microgrids expanded for isolated areas, where expensive batteries are currently the only means of storing energy. Proposed activities undertaken towards this goal would include coding and data analysis using computational software and a visit to Kigali and Musanze, Rwanda for the purpose of data collection. Contacts in the hydropower industry there would be leveraged to gain the most up-to-date data on solar and hydro facilities in the area. The proposed project would be limited exclusively to intellectual, academic, or analytical activities and would use no physical materials beyond basic office supplies and software.