In Your Region
Hydropower is helping to keep the lights on in every U.S. state.
The top-ten hydropower generating states are:
WashingtonOregon
New York
California
Alabama
Idaho
Tennessee
Montana
Arizona
North Carolina
Hydro is generating power in every region of the country and is America’s largest source of clean, renewable electricity. Hydropower accounts for 65.9 percent of the nation’s renewable electricity generation and 7 percent of total electricity generation.
A domestic energy source, hydropower requires only the power of America’s moving waters – rivers, streams and ocean tides – to generate electricity. That means much of the money spent on hydropower stays here in America.
Much of hydropower’s future growth will be focused on facilities and infrastructure already built and in use, which represent opportunities for increasing renewable energy generation without constructing new, large dams.
Hydropower is 1.4 Million Jobs
According to a study from Navigant Consulting, America’s hydropower industry has the potential to create more than 1.4 million cumulative jobs by 2025. These are good-paying engineering, manufacturing, construction and operations jobs that can revitalize American communities. With the right federal policies, the hydropower industry has the potential to create jobs in every state, building a 21st century clean energy infrastructure.
Hydropower has tremendous generation potential
At the 2011 NHA Annual Conference, on Apr. 5, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) addressed hydropower’s benefits and the bipartisan Hydropower Improvement Act of 2011. The presentation also featured the release of a new Department of Energy analysis which finds 12 GW of power can be added to existing dams, mostly in the South and Midwest. View the full report and the interactive map at DOE’s website.
