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It is critical to understand the challenges facing hydropower, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researches the industry holistically, examining the factors influencing hydro both externally and internally.
ORNL’s Hydropower Market Report – the only regularly updated source of comprehensive information on the status and direction of U.S. hydro – and the Hydropower Supply Chain Deep Dive Assessment (Assessment) contain countless insights into obstacles and opportunities facing the industry.
According to the Assessment, while the domestic turbine market in the U.S. is healthy, the industry faces supply chain stressors, such as steel castings not procured domestically and overbooked foundries serving multiple international clients.
To help alleviate manufacturing strain on the industry while creating greater opportunity for domestic manufacturing, ORNL has developed a program titled Rapid RUNNERS.
In February, Rapid RUNNERS received $15 million in funding, spanning over three years, from the Department of Energy (DOE) to use additive manufacturing, also known as 3-D printing, as a means of expediting the manufacturing of runners – the rotating part of hydro turbines which enable the movement and pressure of water to be converted into electricity. As runners are largely produced overseas, if an issue occurs, the replacement process can take years, leading to loss in revenue and renewable energy.
When the Rapid RUNNERS program concludes, the industry will have a replicable platform to quickly produce large metal parts, ensuring hydro’s many benefits face less downtime and remain capable of supporting communities and the clean energy transition.
SUPPLY CHAIN HURDLES
Maintaining and modernizing the existing hydropower fleet requires a robust supply chain to support operations and ensure grid reliability. Yet, the global hydropower supply chain is subject to material and manufacturing bottlenecks, which pose a major challenge to hydro project owners and operators.
To further explore the issue, ORNL researched the global hydropower supply chain, and the findings were collected in the Hydropower Supply Chain Deep Dive Assessment – published in 2022.
One of the Assessment’s takeaways was that while the U.S. supply chain adequately serves the existing fleet, several external factors create stressors on the industry, such as:
- Steel castings not procured domestically
- Stator windings imported from international partners
- Overbooked foundries serving multiple international clients
The Assessment also determined that the turbine market remains healthy in the U.S., as two of the ‘big three’ global turbine OEM’s operate facilities in the United States; additionally, the diversity of suppliers is higher for turbine units <=30 MW than it is for larger units.
Yet, the report also illustrates the limitations of the pre-existing supply chain. For example: when a company in the United States wants to procure a new turbine greater than 10 tons, then it may face the bottleneck of steel casting, as turbines of this size cannot be procured domestically.
The authors of the Assessment posit that adaptability and awareness are key to successfully navigating the challenges of the global hydropower supply chain.
INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS
In a bid to help revitalize and return manufacturing opportunities to the United States, ORNL has developed an innovative new project titled “Rapid Research on Universal Near Net Shape Fabrication Strategies for Expedited Runner Systems,” or Rapid RUNNERS, which received $15 million in funding over three years from the Department of Energy (DOE) in 2024.
The goal of the project: utilize additive manufacturing, as well as conventional tools, to produce runners for hydropower projects. Currently, runners are heavily produced overseas, and when an issue occurs, the process of fabricating and receiving replacements can take years, leading to lost money, time, and renewable energy.
Additive manufacturing can quickly produce metal components that closely match the dimensions of the parts, which are then further refined using traditional machining techniques to create a finished shape. This process ultimately reduces both waste and downtime when compared to current methodologies.
The program relies on software that directs robots to produce the parts. The machines work collectively to perform additive manufacturing tasks at greater rates and across larger shapes, as opposed to individual systems.
Automatic robots in an industrial factory
With many different technological facets at play, ORNL partnered with several other organizations – Huntington Ingalls-Newport News Shipbuilding, Electric Power Research Institute, Open Mind Technologies, ARC Specialties, and Voith Group Hydropower – to provide software, robotics, hardware, and manufacturing strategies.
In a demonstration of the program’s potential, Rapid RUNNERS will fabricate three Francis runners:
- The first runner will be a prototype for use in ORNL’s testing
- The second runner, which will be about five-feet in diameter, is being designed for a potential installation in Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Ocoee Dam – an 840-foot-wide and 135-foot-tall hydro project with 24 MW of capacity
- The third runner will be about 15 feet in diameter, as well as eight-feet tall, and may be installed in TVA’s Wilson Dam, a 653 MW facility
ORNL’s Jay Tiley inspects a hydroelectric runner from TVA’s Cherokee Dam. Credit: Jim Tobin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
After the project concludes in three years, Rapid RUNNERS will have designed a manufacturing platform with wide-reaching utility, one tested and refined by real-world application.
The hydropower industry can then take advantage of the platform for large metal fabrications, producing parts quickly while reducing delays and costs.
RELATED CONTENT
Learn about how a high school in Tennessee is creating workforce pathways for its students via a school-run additive manufacturing business; check out the article here.
Students at Oak Ridge High School’s Wildcat Manufacturing operating machinery.
