Fed agencies aim to boost green hydropower projects

Three federal agencies – the Departments of Energy and the Interior, and the Army Corps of Engineers – on Wednesday launched a new effort to boost development of a renewable energy source with an environmentally-checkered past: hydropower.

Hydro dams are the largest source of renewable electricity in the U.S. But hydropower has not enjoyed the green cachet of solar and wind energy due to its effects on fish and river ecosytems.

The three agencies signed a formal memorandum of understanding Wednesday that aims to expand power generation and environmental performance of existing federal dams.

The agencies also hope to foster new development of low-impact projects (the kind that don’t involve big new dams) on federal lands.

“The Agencies will identify specific federal facilities and lands owned or controlled by the United States that are well-suited as sites for environmentally sustainable hydropower energy development,” the MOU states. “This new approach to hydropower development will advance projects that are superior in terms of environmental sensitivity to many other types of energy production and development.”

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said there’s potential for as much as 60,000 megawatts of environmentally-friendly hydropower nationwide. “Even if we capture just a small fraction, it would be enormous,” Chu said. (For comparison, coal-fired power plants are often in the 500-1,000 megawatt range.)

Chu said hydropower can help play a role in the expansion of energy sources that do not emit greenhouse gases. “I am for hydropower because I’m an environmentalist,” he said at a press conference Wednesday at the Interior Department.

The agencies are touting the potential for technologies such as fish-friendly turbines.