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Hydropower is the United States’ oldest source of renewable electricity, comprising nearly 7% of U.S. generation and providing important reliability and flexibility services to our grid. Additionally, pumped storage hydropower currently supplies roughly 95% of our nation’s utility-scale energy storage. But what exactly are hydropower and pumped storage and how do they benefit us?
Hydropower, also referred to as hydroelectric power, is electricity produced from generators driven by turbines that spin from falling or fast-flowing water; these technologies convert water’s kinetic energy into mechanical energy and then into electricity. Pumped storage hydropower has the added capability of reusing fallen water, which has already been used to create electricity, and pumping this water back up to a higher reservoir for storage until it is needed to meet power demand.
We generally think of hydropower as a source of electricity generation and storage, but these facilities also provide several other benefits.
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