- Show all
- Asset Management
- Buoy
- Canal
- Climate Change
- Controls
- Dam Safety
- Environmental Impact
- Fish and Aquatic Resources
- Future Grid
- Generator
- Governor
- Hydraulic Forecasting
- Hydraulic Optimization
- Hydrokinetic
- Intake Gates
- Markets
- Penstock
- Regulatory Process
- Renewable Integration
- Sediment Transport
- Shoreline and Riparian Resources
- Spillgates
- Tidal
- Transmission Services
- Turbine
- Water Management
- Water Resources
- Water Systems
- Wave
- Conventional Hydro
Powell Center Synthesis of Dam Removal Literature
Lead Companies
U.S. Geological Survey
Lead Researcher (s)
- Jeff Duda, Jim O'Connor, Amy East, Chauncey Anderson
Examination and synthesis of dam removal literature with observations, framed and tested as hypotheses and conceptual models to provide better understanding of the multifaceted and interrelated consequences of dam decommissioning, thereby providing a basis for formulating realistic expectations for river restoration in addition to identifying key information gaps and research needs.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Water Resources
Status
complete
Completion Date
2018
- Marine Energy
Powering the Blue Economy Foundational R&D and Systems of Innovation
Lead Companies
NREL
Lead Researcher (s)
- Ben Maurer, ben.maurer@nrel.gov
- Senu Sirnivas, senu.sirnivas@nrel.gov
- Jenny Wiegele, jenny.wiegele@nrel.gov
To spur economic growth and revitalize the ocean, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) launched the Powering the Blue EconomyTM (PBE) initiative, which aims to foster long-term, sustainable growth of the blue economy by protecting the ocean and understanding and leveraging its immense power, learning the power needs of emerging coastal and maritime markets, and advancing marine renewable energy technologies. NREL is helping achieve PBE goals through early-stage research and development by investigating power needs for blue economy sectors, such as offshore marine aquaculture, underwater vehicle charging, ocean observation, desalination, and seawater mining. For example, NREL researchers are exploring the feasibility of using marine energy to provide power at sea and build resiliency in coastal communities, with a focus on disaster recovery. To this end, the team is researching designs for small-scale marine energy technologies.
Technology Application
Marine Energy
Research Category
Research Sub-Category
Environmental Impact, Fish and Aquatic Resources, Water Resources
Status
complete
Completion Date
2022
- Conventional Hydro
Prediction of Reservoir Sediment Pressure Flushing
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Blair Greimann
Reservoir sedimentation affects all Reclamation reservoirs to some extent. In some cases reservoir sediment is beginning to approach the intake elevation for either a penstock or water diversion. A gated intake at a lower elevation can be used to remove sediment in the vicinity of the gate and prevent sediment from entering the penstock or water diversion. Can we construct numerical models to assist in the design and operation of these low level outlets? Many Reclamation facilities are approaching an age of 100 years. Often, the intake elevation for penstocks leading to hydroelectric facilities was set at the elevation expected after 100 years of sedimentation. Our current numerical modeling tools are lacking in their ability to simulate pressure flushing as may occur at facilities where they are attempting to keep the penstock intake clear of sediment by flushing sediment at a lower level intake while keeping the reservoir nearly full. Our current sediment models can only model flushing of sediment when the reservoir is drawdown completely and there is not appreciable reservoir pool left. Therefore, to design appropriate low level outlets and to analyze various operations, it will be necessary to have a numerical model that can simulate this process.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Water Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2020
- Conventional Hydro
River restoration interactive geospatial database to inform future river rehabilitation design
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Melissa Shinbein
Each year, a fifth of Reclamation's budget is spent on river restoration projects. River restoration projects can include fisheries and aquatic habitat improvement, river enhancement and improved channel function, river and stream bank protection, fish passage and barrier removal, rearing habitat improvement, gravel augmentation, wetland and riparian habitat creation, water quality enhancement, and fish stocking, among other activities.This research project aims to create a river restoration database to collect information about projects that have already been implemented and to inform future rehabilitation designs for fish and aquatic species recovery under the Endangered Species Act. Past river restoration projects in a variety of programs across all of Reclamation's regions will be evaluated to compare and contrast successes and lessons learned. Project- and program-wide knowledge will be obtained to help inform agency-wide knowledge on river restoration projects.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Water Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2022
- Conventional Hydro
Robust Eco-Hydraulic 3D Modeling Tools for Rivers with Complex In-Stream Structures
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Yong Lai
In-stream features such as fish passages and large woods are widely used by Reclamation for improving river management through enhanced fish passage and habitat restoration. Design methods and guidelines are rare for predicting their effectiveness. It is also difficult to predict the physical response of channels to their placement. The risk and liability of these in-stream features are rarely evaluated quantitatively prior to project implementation. Computer models have the potential to address the above issues. However, a key bottleneck of applying existing 3D models such as U2ARNS is the need for 3D mesh generation. Mesh generation for complex geometries, such as in-stream structures, can easily fail. Even when meshing can be completed, the resulted low quality of the mesh often renders 3D solver unstable. This proposed research aims to develop a novel alternative method which may be implemented into the latest high-accuracy 3D model U2RANS. The end-product is a robust eco-hydraulic 3D modeling tool for rivers with complex in-stream features.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Water Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2020
- Conventional Hydro
Scoping Study: Demonstrating Value of River Data Aggregation and Visualization Capabilities
Lead Companies
PNNL
Lead Researcher (s)
- Kyle Larson
The initial focus of this project is to help WTPO develop a plan for a longer-term effort that will seek to demonstrate the value of improving stakeholder access to more comprehensive data for their river basins. These efforts relate the WTPO goal of increasing awareness of and helping to achieve multi-benefit outcomes from taking basin-scale approaches to energy-water planning.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Water Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
Simulating California’s water supply system under future climate stresses
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Michael Wright
Our main water supply model is calibrated to the historical record; we should calibrate it to climate model outputs, too. In S&T 1816 we developed climate models with this purpose in mind. We can generate weather on a monthly time scale and stress the current water supply system with realistic rainfall and snow distributions derived from future scenarios. We can find out how the system would respond to a drought or a whiplashing climate. This kind of modeling could inform decision-making about projects like dams with long operational lives.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Water Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2022
- Conventional Hydro
Subseasonal Heatwave Prediction
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Ken Nowak
The question we propose to explore here is to what extent snowpack melt is a gradual process due to seasonal warming and to what extent it comes in spurts driven by springtime and early summer heat waves. Are there predictable pre-conditions that favor smooth versus episodic snowmelt? These questions have bearing on water resources and their management in that gradual snowpack melt is amenable to efficient capture and storage in engineered reservoirs, while strong episodic melting can be more challenging to manage and store and can lead to flooding.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Water Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2021
- Conventional Hydro
Testing Plan for Environmentally Acceptable Hydro Plant Oils
Lead Companies
CEATI International
Lead Researcher (s)
- 03/103
The objective of this document was to produce a set of standardized tests (i.e., a test plan) for CEATI members to use for the evaluation of potential candidates to replace incumbent oils with environmentally acceptable (EA) oils suitable for use in various applications within power plants.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Water Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
Expected 2020
- Conventional Hydro
Using beryllium-10 derived erosion rates as a proxy for reservoir sedimentation
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Melissa Foster
A technique to calculate basin-averaged erosion rates from 10Be concentrations in quartz river sands was pioneered in the mid-1990s. Basin-averaged erosion rates represent the long-term surface lowering for the entire basin upstream from the measurement point. This is a relatively inexpensive technique that could provide a baseline for sediment production in basins. We hypothesize that trends will exist between basin-averaged erosion and rates of reservoir sedimentation, which may allow the 10Be-derived measurements of basin-averaged erosion to be used as a proxy for reservoir sedimentation. Therefore, an inexpensive measurement could be used to better understand sedimentation rates in reservoirs where funds are not available for expensive reservoir surveys.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Water Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2020
Don’t see your waterpower research?
Have questions about WaRP?
Contact Marla Barnes at: marla@hydro.org