2022 MECC Teams Selected & New WPTO Job Opening

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Water Power Technologies Office

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May 27, 2021

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Reach out to us at WaterPowerTechnologiesOffice@ee.doe.gov with any inquiries or suggestions.

Estimated read time: 4 minutes


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Announcements & Opportunities

Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Announced as Co-chair of International Forum on Pumped Storage Hydropower

Kelly Speakes-Backman, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE), is the new co-chair of the International Forum on Pumped Storage Hydropower. Launched in November 2020, the intergovernmental, multi-stakeholder platform aims to shape and enhance the role of pumped storage—the world’s largest contribute to grid-scale energy storage—in future power systems.

The forum’s second meeting, co-chaired by Speakes-Backman, took place on May 25 and featured an address from Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, who said investing in hydropower—especially pumped storage—is a central part of President Biden’s energy jobs plan.

CalWave testing facility.

Teams Selected to Participate in 2022 Marine Energy Collegiate Competition

EERE announced the 17 teams chosen to participate in the 2022 Marine Energy Collegiate Competition (MECC). In its third year, the MECC enables multidisciplinary teams of undergraduate and graduate students to obtain real-world experience in exploring innovative marine energy solutions to address power needs across the blue economy.

Learn more about the competition and participating 2022 teams.

Interior and Energy Departments Continue Efforts to Advance Offshore Safety and Environmental Sustainability

As part of the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to improving the safety and environmental sustainability of offshore energy development, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI)’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and DOE have entered into a cooperative agreement with Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station to support the ongoing operation and maintenance of the Ocean Energy Safety Institute. Read DOI’s full press release to learn more.


WPTO Job Opening

Apply Now to Become a Management and Program Analyst in WPTO

Are you interested in working for DOE and joining a phenomenal team? We’re looking for a new member to join the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) Operations Team as a Management and Program Analyst. In this position, you will support operations (hiring and staffing, support service contract management, data management) and budget management tasks for the office and be responsible for analyzing the effectiveness and efficiency of office operations, developing recommendations for management to make process improvements, and implementing these improvements. Qualified candidates will have some operations or budget experience, such as supporting strategic and business planning for staffing or data management, process improvement, or budget formulation and execution.

The deadline to apply is Monday, May 31. Please see the full job posting for additional details.


Publications

Sandia Research Published in Applied Energy

Applied Energy recently published Maybe Less Is More: Considering Capacity Factor, Saturation, Variability, and Filtering Effects of Wave Energy Devices by Sandia National Laboratory (Sandia) researchers. The study examines a set of wave resource metrics aimed at bettering the accounting for variability in wave energy converter design. Results show distinct regional trends that may factor into project siting and wave energy converter design.


Upcoming Webinars & Events

R&D Deep Dive Webinar Series: Accelerating Irrigation Modernization

June 2, 23 p.m. ET
Register here

WPTO is accelerating reinvestment in the nation’s irrigation systems to simultaneously promote farmers’ and rural communities’ economic well-being, generate more renewable energy, advance environmental stewardship, and enable agricultural decarbonization. Idaho National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a decision support and visualization tool called IrrigationViz to analyze the costs and benefits of modernization.

Capitol Hill Ocean Week

June 8–10, 2021
Register here

Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW), hosted by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, gathers people from around the world to engage in a dialogue on how to sustain the health of our ocean and Great Lakes. This year the conference will focus on building a more racially equitable and just movement for ocean and Great Lakes conservation. CHOW is open to the public and free to attendees—be sure to stop by WPTO’s virtual booth!

Workshop: Practical Approaches to Modeling and Control Designs for Wave Energy Converters

June 17–18, 9 a.m.-12 pm. ET
Learn more

Join researchers from Sandia and Johns Hopkins University for a workshop that will introduce students to a set of practical tools that can be applied in engineering analyses of wave energy controls (WECs). Students will learn a theoretical foundation and a set of tools that can be applied in WEC design, modeling, and control.

R&D Deep Dive Webinar Series: Underwater Observations – Monitoring the Environment around Marine Energy Devices

June 24, 3:30-4:30 p.m. ET
Register here

The Triton Initiative is researching various environmental monitoring technology and methods to understand how different types of stressors caused by marine renewable energy devices can be tested. The information gleaned from this research will produce a set of recommendations to inform regulators on how to safely permit marine renewable energy devices bringing the nation closer to meeting climate change goals and reducing dependency on fossil fuels.


2019-2020 Accomplishments Report: Project Spotlight

River Hydrokinetics Team That Helped an Alaskan Village Reduce Dependence on Diesel Honored by Maine International Trade Center

RivGen unit installed in Igiugig, Alaska.

Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC), Inc., a developer of marine renewable energy systems that generate power from free-flowing rivers and tidal currents, has been selected by the Maine International Trade Center (MITC) as Innovator of the Year. ORPC’s WPTO-funded RivGen® unit installed in Igiugig, Alaska is the longest operating river current energy converter in the Americas and helped mitigate the village’s depended on diesel fuel to power its homes and businesses.

Read WPTO’s 2019-2020 Accomplishments Report to learn more about the project.


In Case You Missed It

WPTO Supports Small Hydropower Innovation

A successful WPTO-funded collaboration between NREL and Natel Energy, Inc., a California sustainable hydropower company, resulted in an NREL analysis that indicated that small, distributed hydropower facilities could generate electricity at little added cost with minimal environmental disruption and no carbon emissions.

Sandia National Laboratories Highlights Their Water Power Capabilities in New Video

Check out a recently published video from Sandia spotlighting their Water Power Program. Sandia partners with other national laboratories, academia, and industry to solve challenges and help communities by generating electricity in new ways, combining engineering, modeling, and technology transfer.