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The Omnibus Appropriations measure to fund the U.S. Federal Government for fiscal year 2022 – signed into law by President Joe Biden on Friday, March 11, 2022 – includes a record-setting $162 million for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO).
The funds will provide increased support for WPTO’s research, development, demonstration, and commercial deployment activities across the waterpower technologies of conventional hydro, marine energy, and pumped storage hydro.
This allocation is in addition to $146.4 million in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 for activities related to research and development for hydro and marine energy. The Infrastructure Act also provides an additional $753.6 million in grants for new and existing hydropower investment.
“We have an enormous amount of work ahead of us, through our normal appropriations-driven work, the Infrastructure Law, and managing the changing and expanded mission of DOE – including how it will impact water power technologies going from ideas into the market,” said Jennifer Garson, Director of DOE’s WPTO.
“I’m excited to keep driving innovation from this position, working to ensure that we maintain and develop new hydropower, develop marine energy systems into commercial-ready applications, oversee our work that will impact everything from the grid to drinking water to modernization of irrigation systems,” Garson said.
BREAKING DOWN THE DETAILS
The $1.5 trillion omnibus spending package (H.R. 2471) includes $112 million for marine energy and not less than $47 million for conventional hydro.
“Over the past 15 years, NHA has consistently worked to increase DOE’s hydropower and marine energy research and development funding,” says Paul Gay, vice president at SMI, co-chair of NHA’s Marine Energy Council, and NHA’s lead lobbyist for appropriations-related legislation. “Consider this – the spending allocation for the DOE Water Power Program in FY 2008 was only $10 million – so we’ve seen a nearly 1,500% funding increase in that timeframe.”
The legislation builds on the hydropower industry’s success at supporting healthy river ecosystems by providing $5 million for deployment efforts of innovative technologies for fish passage and invasive fish species removal at hydropower facilities, as well as analysis of hydrologic climate science and water basin data to understand the impact of climate change on hydropower.
In addition, the FY2022 WPTO funding has significant resources for marine energy along with directive language that supports industry-led development efforts, university foundational research, testing facility upgrades, and other important support for commercializing the marine energy sector. Also, Congress appropriated FY 2022 funding for the U.S. Department of Defense for a variety of marine energy and small hydropower system developments sponsored by the Navy Energy Program and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
For DOE in general, the Omnibus Appropriations measure provides record funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) at $3.2 billion — an increase of $338 million above FY 2021 levels.
Funding for DOE’s Office of Science, which oversees the seventeen DOE national labs, totals $7.5 billion — an increase of $449 million above FY 2021 levels.
Environmental justice programs are funded at $100 million, a significant increase over $12 million in FY 2021 spending.
ADDITIONAL WATERPOWER R&D DOLLARS IN INFRASTRUCTURE ACT
Beyond the $162 million for spending between now and September 30, 2022, the DOE WPTO also has another $146.4 million to use for activities related to research and development for hydro and marine energy, per the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.
Specifics called out in the Infrastructure Act are as follows:
- $36 million for hydropower research and development activities as authorized under section 634 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.
- $70.4 million for industry-led marine energy research and development activities as authorized under section 635 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.
- $40 million for National Marine Energy Center-led marine energy research and development activities as authorized under section 636 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.
NEXT STEPS
The funding in the Omnibus Appropriations measure highlights the importance of those in the waterpower industry sharing their experiences with lawmakers to provide legislators with the understanding they need to support our industry. This historic support for the WPTO would not have been possible without National Hydropower Association (NHA) lobbying efforts.
You can help build on this success. NHA’s upcoming Waterpower Week in Washington conference, April 5-7, 2022, includes a Lobby Day on Tuesday, April 5, from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. To schedule a meeting with your Member of Congress during this event, please use the instructions here.
In addition, a number of staff from the DOE WPTO will be in person at Waterpower Week in Washington to share plans and collaborate with industry and other stakeholders. A list of sessions can be found HERE; a list of speakers HERE.
NHA will continue to work closely with the WPTO to ensure this historic funding for water power research and development activities supports ongoing commercialization of the marine energy sector and continued innovations in the hydropower and pumped-storage sectors.
