 What’s Inside: This edition of the Water Wire celebrates World Water Day and Women’s History Month and shares recent announcements, a job opportunity, upcoming events, a project spotlight from our 2019–2020 Accomplishments Report, and other hot topics.
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Estimated read time: 7 minutes and 30 seconds
Celebrating Women’s History Month and World Water Day
Women’s History Month, we’re highlighting a few women in energy and water power and sharing resources for girls who want to follow in their footsteps. Learn more about the phenomenal women that are shaping the future of energy at DOE and in the water power field.
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World Water Day is celebrated annually on March 22 and earlier this week, the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) made several announcements highlighting the ways we support the continued sustainable use of our energy-water resources while identifying new ways to leverage them for the benefit of Americans. WPTO also published a blog about what water means to us, addressing the theme for World Water Day 2021. Read more in our blog about how WPTO is working to harness American ingenuity to realize water power’s vast potential.
Announcements
WPTO selected recipients for the Hydroelectric Production Incentive Program’s latest round of $7 million in funding under Section 242 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The program provides funding for projects that add hydroelectric power generating capabilities to existing dams throughout the United States, leveraging existing infrastructure and the power of water to help meet America’s growing need for renewable electricity. Qualified facilities under the new round of funding were selected based on the number of kilowatt hours generated in 2019. Read more about the program on the WPTO website.
Energy storage is a key enabler of our increasingly renewable electricity mix, and pumped storage hydropower (PSH) represents 93% of grid storage in the United States. However, determining the value of PSH plants and their many grid services has been a challenge. To address this challenge, WPTO’s HydroWIRES Initiative developed a valuation guidebook that presents a detailed step-by-step valuation guidance that PSH developers, plant owners or operators, and other stakeholders can use to assess the value of existing or potential new PSH plants. The methodology is being demonstrated through techno-economic studies in partnership with PSH developers; results from those techno-economic studies and an accompanying online tool to help users navigate the PSH valuation process are forthcoming.
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The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced it will begin accepting applications for the 2022 Marine Energy Collegiate Competition on April 5. This will be the third year of the annual competition designed to challenge interdisciplinary teams of undergraduate and graduate students to unlock the power of the ocean, rivers, and tides to develop, design, and test the technologies that build resilient coastal communities and provide power at sea. Learn more about the competition and application requirements, and submit your applications by May 7.
WPTO and the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) announced selections for the Marine and Hydrokinetic Graduate Student Research Program. The fellowship offers graduate students opportunities to participate in industry-level problem solving and prepares them for the next level of career development. As participants in the WPTO-funded program, selected fellows will conduct research at both their academic institution and at an external hosting facility, carrying out research in marine energy and supporting their submitted research plans. The 2021 fellows will work with DOE national labs, wave energy developer CalWave, and the Makah Indian Tribe. Congratulations to the new fellows! Visit the program website to learn more.
Marine energy has the potential to fulfill a range of important needs for energy across the growing blue economy—such as powering aquaculture farms far offshore, providing reliable power to remote communities, or enabling the desalination of water in the event of a natural disaster-induced disruption to water supply. However, the limited availability of marine energy testing infrastructure is a critical challenge to the advancement of these technologies.
To help address this challenge, WPTO announced a total of $7.1 million to seven projects supporting marine energy testing infrastructure across five DOE national labs. With this investment, the national labs will be poised to support the development and demonstration of marine energy technologies designed at different scales and for different blue economy applications. Included in this investment is support to Pacific Northwest National Lab to develop a new electric research vessel to support marine energy field work at the Marine and Coastal Research Laboratory—a first of its kind asset for the Department and an example of DOE’s commitment to advancing solutions for a thriving, low-carbon blue economy.
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WPTO Job Opportunity
Are you interested in working in WPTO? We’re looking for a new member to join our team as a General Engineer with the Hydropower Program. As a Hydropower Technology Manager and Technical Project Officer, you will manage research, development, and demonstration activities related to hydropower technologies. The candidate must have expertise in hydropower, experience in project management, and oral and written communication skills. We encourage candidates to apply by April 30. Please see WPTO’s announcement for details about the position and instructions on how to apply.
Upcoming Virtual Events
On March 30, WPTO Marine Energy Program Manager Tim Ramsey, NREL researcher Levi Kilcher, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) researcher Dhruv Bhatnagar will participate in an event hosted by NHA as part of their Path to Clean Energy webinar series. During the event, NREL will share insights from the recently published report, Marine Energy in the United States: An Overview of Opportunities, which summarizes the best available data on U.S. marine energy resources at the state and regional scales. Register now!
Join Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and WPTO on March 31 from 2–3 p.m., when experts will walk listeners through key takeaways from the January 2021 edition of the U.S. Hydropower Market Report.
 Led by ORNL, the report compiles data from public and commercial sources as well as research findings from DOE projects to provide a comprehensive picture of developments in the U.S. hydropower and pumped-storage fleet and industry trends for U.S. and global hydropower. Register for the webinar and read about some of the report’s key takeaways.
This webinar is part of WPTO’S Research and Development (R&D) Deep Dive Series, where technology managers, national laboratory research experts, and other partners highlight WPTO R&D efforts for the hydropower and marine energy industries.
On April 6, 1-3 p.m. ET, WPTO is hosting a webinar with Q&A sessions to show how students and faculty can get involved in hydropower and marine energy R&D. A panel of students will discuss their experiences as WPTO interns and fellows, researchers at national labs, marine energy collegiate competitors, and more. WPTO staff will discuss prizes and competitions, testing opportunities, funding opportunity announcements, and paid reviewer opportunities. The examples provided will be specific to WPTO, but the discussion will offer a window into the many pathways for working with DOE. View the agenda and register online.
Throughout March and April, a team of national lab experts will host a series of webinars that delve into using composite materials for marine energy applications. Learn about the latest performance results on coupons, or materials samples, provided by the marine energy community on March 26, or about advanced manufacturing composite blades on April 9. Learn more about these webinars and register online.
Join representatives from WPTO, DOE, and national laboratories at the 2021 International Conference on Ocean Energy (ICOE) and experience this year’s ICOE from anywhere in the world! Every two years, ICOE draws international experts from the marine energy sectors to highlight device innovation, new market developments, and regulatory frameworks helping to spur progress around the world.
Hosted by the National Hydropower Association (NHA) and sponsored by WPTO, the 2021 conference, themed “Energizing a Powerful Blue Economy,” will be held virtually April 28–30, 2021. Register for the event by March 31 for the early bird, discounted rate.
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2019–2020 Accomplishments Report: Project Spotlight
In Case You Missed It
On March 17, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation announced the Automated Maintenance of Protection Systems (AMPS) Challenge. The $250,000 challenge is focused on developing novel capabilities to ensure hydropower system reliability standards while removing the need for a plant to be taken offline during reliability testing. Even short-term plant outages due to testing can be costly and prevent the plant’s ability to provide reliable, renewable energy to the grid. WPTO is supporting the challenge by helping to review submissions to ensure conceptual maturity. The challenge will have two phases and submissions to the first phase are due September 3. Learn more about the AMPS Challenge and how you can get involved.
On March 1, WPTO hosted their semiannual stakeholder webinar in which staff provided an update on the administration transition, highlighted recent water power announcements and publications, shared project updates, and discussed upcoming priorities. WPTO staff were joined by Kelly Speakes-Backman, Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, and Alejandro Moreno, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Renewable Power and WPTO Director. View the recording and stay tuned for the next webinar in this series.
On March 11, NHA hosted a virtual webinar on “Pairing Batteries and Hydropower: Clean Energy’s Untapped Solution.” Panelists, including Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL) Thomas Mosier, explored the value streams of collocating batteries and hydropower. Pairing these technologies together has the potential to enhance grid reliability services, environmental performance, and operation and maintenance costs. Panelists also discussed new market services that could be established, as well as examined the findings of and INL-led project that examined the pairing of run-of-river hydropower with batteries and other energy storage technologies to enhance hydropower’s capability to provide grid services. Watch the recording to learn more about this valuable clean energy match.
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