Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory conducted an assessment on the energy potential at non-powered dams (NPDs) throughout the United States. The laboratories studied 54,391 of the 80,000+ NPDs in the nation to quantify the potential capacity and generation available from adding power production capabilities. The remaining dams were eliminated from the study because of erroneous geographic information, erroneous flow or drainage area attributes, or their height was less than five feet. Quality control and review processes were conducted to ensure that all dams in the study were analyzed as accurately as possible.
