Washington, DC – Malcolm Woolf, the President and CEO of the National Hydropower Association, released the following statement on today’s announcement that the Department of Energy selected 293 hydroelectric improvement projects across 33 states to receive up to $430 million in incentive payments for much-needed upgrades. The funding is allocated from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s (BIL) Maintaining and Enhancing Hydroelectricity Incentives Program (Section 247), and it leverages an additional $2.4 billion in private investment:
“I thank Secretary Granholm, the Grid Deployment Office, and all others who secured this vital investment to our nation’s hydropower facilities. As the Secretary expressed just today at a briefing announcing this new round of funding, ‘Sometimes the old ways are still the best. As the oldest form of renewable energy, hydropower has reliably kept America running for the last 150 years.’
“Hydropower facilities, which provide electricity to an estimated 30 million Americans, can serve as ‘forever assets,’ but only if they are properly maintained. This critical federal grant program will unleash over a billion dollars in private sector investment to preserve and enhance this resource that is essential to a 24/7 reliable clean energy grid. With almost half of the non-federal fleet actively considering whether to relicense or decommission, this investment comes at a critical time.”
For more information, read DOE’s official announcement HERE.
