National Hydropower Association’s (NHA) Clean Currents 2025 Conference + Trade Show, held the week of October 13 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was a homecoming for the water power industry, drawing more than 1,800 registrants from over 25 countries!

During this “by the industry, for the industry” annual event, hydro project owners and developers, service and product suppliers, government agency officials, non-government organizations, and other stakeholders connected in workshops, during organizational meetings, on hydro plant tours, in CC Central, and during networking events.

From conversations throughout the event, NHA, owner and organizer of Clean Currents, offers observations about these trends emerging from the week:

How Hydro is Meeting the Moment

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Water Power Innovation

Attendees gather in front of the Innovation Powerhouse stage to watch a presentation.

HOW HYDRO IS MEETING THE MOMENT

Clean Currents 2025 was well-timed, as questions about how the United States will address rising energy demand are top of mind.

Earlier this month, the Energy Information Administration released its short-term energy outlook, which projected that power demand will rise to 4,191 billion kilowatt-hours in 2025 and 4,305 billion kWh in 2026 – up from a record 4,097 billion kWh in 2024.

What’s driving this demand isn’t a mystery, as data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency mining are being constructed at unprecedented rates, and when coupled with more U.S. homes and businesses utilizing electricity instead of fossil fuel for heat and transportation, the issue of sourcing more electricity is intensifying.

During Clean Current’s Wednesday plenary on October 15, Malcolm Woolf, NHA’s CEO and President, took the stage to lay out how he believes hydro is primed to take advantage of the moment. Addressing the attendees, Woolf highlighted how the demand for load growth compliments hydro’s value proposition, as rates increase, hydro stands to make gains due to its baseload benefits.

Malcolm Woolf, NHA’s CEO and President, addresses attendees during the Wednesday plenary.

Woolf went on to further illustrate how companies like Google, citing their recent $3 billion hydropower purchase agreement with Brookfield Renewable for 3,000 MW, are looking to resources like hydropower for 24/7 reliability, thereby fueling greater demand. With the additional benefit of hydro as a tax preferred resource, the work of repowering, as well as the construction of new pumped storage hydro, are effectively discounted – with 30% – 50% off – as long as construction is commenced in the next eight years.

Utilization of the federal tax credit landscape for existing hydro and pumped storage assets, focusing on both the Production Tax Credit and Investment Tax Credit, was explored more fully during Clean Currents, as NHA led a member-exclusive workshop about how eligibility criteria, key program benefits, and strategic approaches to leveraging incentives could help improve project economics.

Clean Currents 2025 also spotlighted hydropower’s growing role in the fast-expanding voluntary clean energy market, which is a space now driving more renewable investment than what was accomplished via compliance programs.

A dedicated workshop on voluntary markets explored how hydro developers, operators, and market innovators can access billions in new revenue through Renewable Energy Credits, Power Purchase Agreements, and emerging 24/7 procurement models.

Experts from across the clean energy ecosystem shared how voluntary procurement, which is responsible for more than 84 GW of new capacity since 2014, is reshaping demand, as corporate and utility buyers seek round-the-clock renewable supply to power data centers, AI operations, and electrified infrastructure.

Panelists address the room as part of the ‘Unlocking Hydro’s Potential as Part of the Voluntary Rec Market’ workshop at Clean Currents.

For hydropower, this means a major opportunity to monetize its reliability, flexibility, and around-the-clock generation as buyers push for renewable portfolios and verifiable energy sourcing.

To ensure that the industry can rise to the increasing demand for hydro, special attention was paid to the cultivation of its future workforce. Always a critical topic, Clean Currents aimed to deeply integrate and illustrate the multi-faceted ways the industry can uplift new recruits while widening its talent pool.

Enter efforts like a workshop for Pittsburgh teachers in middle and high schools, led by the National Energy Education Development Project. Designed to equip educators with the tools necessary to teach about the benefits of hydropower, the workshop helps cultivate an environment where students are more poised to understand the importance of hydro and view it as a potential career path.

Research, such as a study titled “Interactive Cycles between Energy Education and Energy Preferences” from 2024 posits the following:

“There exist interactive cycles between energy education and energy policy: energy education influences public energy preferences, while energy culture, in turn, affects policy formulation.”

Beyond workshops, NHA, the Hydropower Foundation, and University of Pittsburgh organized a Clean Energy Career Expo designed to facilitate networking with professionals from a variety of organizations – environmental sciences and engineering – and students from a host of degree programs. Drawing more than 75+ students to University of Pittsburgh, the Clean Energy Career Expo proved an excellent opportunity to increase participant awareness in the many opportunities water power provides.

Students chat with Construction and Trade Skill representatives at the Clean Energy Career Expo located at University of Pittsburgh.

With the addition of content for early-career professionals, such as NHA’s Future Leaders of Waterpower, multiple awards – the Julie Keil Award and Rising Star Award – targeted at those fresh to water power, and the co-location of NHA’s Hydro Systems Principles Overview, which equips those new to the industry with the educational foundation they need to succeed, Clean Currents made strategic moves to ensure that every level of the future workforce was nourished.

From Left to Right: McKinley Harm, Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District, receives the Rising Star Award presented by Kelly Rogers, NHA; Chad Croft, HDR, presents the Julie Keil Award to Doan Tran, UC Berkley

THE ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN WATER POWER INNOVATION

AI is rapidly reshaping the energy landscape, and water power is no exception. In 2024, private U.S. AI investment surged to $109.1 billion, nearly 12 times China’s $9.3 billion investment, and 24 times the U.K.’s $4.5 billion, signaling the United State’s drive in dominating the global AI race.

According to research compiled by Stanford University, 78% of organizations are now using AI, demonstrating that the technology is transitioning from innovation to essential infrastructure.

For hydro, this acceleration in AI capability, efficiency, and affordability is already transforming operations. Stanford’s research shows that AI-related hardware costs have declined by roughly 30% annually and energy efficiency has improved by 40% each year. These advancements, paired with increasingly powerful open-weight models, are lowering barriers to entry and enabling utilities, developers, and operators to integrate AI tools directly into plant operations.

During Clean Currents, Emerson’s Bob Yeager, President of Power and Water Solutions, described how next-generation AI will soon be embedded in control rooms across the country. Emerson is developing large language models that “only need to know about the power plant.” These systems are designed to function like “the smartest person to ever walk into a power plant,” and the models can continuously monitor systems, detect anomalies, and flag events that require operator attention, essentially acting as an intelligent co-pilot that learns through experience and applies that knowledge to daily operations.

Bob Yeager, President of Emerson’s Power and Water Solutions, shares insights about AI impacts with Clean Currents attendees.

Yeager predicted that within three to four years, generative AI will be fully integrated into hydropower control rooms, automating key processes across the nation while supporting the development of an anticipated 1k GW of new hydropower and storage needed to meet rising electricity demand.

During a panel moderated by NHA’s Michael Purdie, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Markets, leaders from Southern Company, PG&E, and the North American Reliability Corporation (NERC) discussed how their regions are preparing for the surging demand for electricity.

NERC President Jim Robb highlighted the complexity of integrating new technologies and managing the associated security risks. With increasing interconnection between data centers and the grid, reliability organizations are working to stay ahead of potential threats while maintaining the industry’s operational independence.

Jimm Robb, President of NERC, responds to a question as part of a panel featuring energy executives from PG&E and Southern Company.

For hydropower, AI represents far more than a wave of digital modernization; rather, a fundamental shift that promises to make operations smarter, safer, and more adaptive.

On Clean Currents’ tradeshow floor, the Innovation Powerhouse offered a dynamic, hands-on look at the future of hydropower, as the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) guided attendees through a “passport to innovation” which featured stations on advanced technology, sustainable operations, improved valuation, regulatory optimization, and collaboration.

Attendees of Clean Currents check-in at the Innovation Powerhouse.

Participants earned stamps for completing activities while engaging with creative, educational experiences the multitude of ways innovation is driving hydropower’s continued progress.

Included in the Innovation Powerhouse were projects and demonstrations that utilized AI across a wide array of applications, such as:

The Hydropower Market Game – Through funding provided by Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office, Argonne National Laboratory and National Renewable Energy Laboratory are in the process of developing a game geared towards students that makes learning about hydro fun and interactive. Researchers utilized AI tools to help build the game’s visuals, expediting the process, and allowing them to quickly make headway, as the game has now been tested, and shaped, by students!

A screenshot from the Hydropower Market Game (photo credit to Argonne National Laboratory).

PermitAI – For the first time in the 50-year history of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), federal regulators have access to a unified database of environmental review documents through PermitAI, a project developed by PNNL. PermitAI uses custom artificial intelligence tools to compile and standardize data from more than 60 federal agencies. The database aligns with the Council on Environmental Quality’s new data standards and supports interagency coordination on permitting decisions. PermitAI also includes SearchNEPA, an interactive AI-driven tool that enables reviewers to efficiently locate and analyze decades of NEPA documentation.

All of this is set against the backdrop of evolving policy seeking to embrace opportunities to apply AI, as the Trump Administration has placed a strong emphasis on advancing AI-driven solutions, which is deeply underscored by the “Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan” that outlines more than 90 federal initiatives to accelerate innovation, expand AI infrastructure, and secure U.S. global leadership.

Framed as vital to both economic growth and national defense, the plan promotes rapid technological development, streamlined regulations, and strategic international partnerships, signaling clear federal support for deeper AI integration across industries like water power, where artificial intelligence is poised to enhance efficiency, reliability, and security.

Attendees connect at the Innovation Powerhouse.

LEARN MORE

To learn more about Clean Currents 2026, which will take place in Phoenix, Arizona, from September 22-24, click HERE.