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- Pumped Storage
A Comparison of the Environmental Effects of Open-Loop and Closed-Loop Pumped Storage Hydropower
Lead Companies
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lead Researcher (s)
- Bo Saulsbury
Pumped storage hydropower (PSH) is a type of energy storage that uses the pumping and release of water between two reservoirs at different elevations to store water and generate electricity. When demand for electricity is low, a PSH project can use low cost energy to pump water from the lower reservoir to the upper reservoir for storage. When demand for electricity is high, a PSH project can release water from the upper reservoir through a powerhouse to generate electricity. Traditionally, this meant that PSH plants generated power during the day and pumped at night, with modest diurnal or seasonal variation. Today, PSH pumping operations are changing to facilitate the integration of the tremendous growth of variable renewable energy (VRE) generating resources, especially wind and solar, on the U.S. grid. PSH facilities are often a least cost option for high capacity (both energy and power), long-duration storage, and can provide the flexibility and fast response that a high-VRE-penetration grid requires. PSH faces its own set of challenges in construction and operation, however, including high initial capital costs, long construction timeframes, uncertainty in revenue streams (similar to all storage), and potential environmental impacts. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) HydroWIRES initiative includes research to address each of these challenges. This report focuses on potential environmental impacts: specifically, the degree to which impacts can be reduced by using closed-loop pumped storage systems as opposed to the traditionally more common open loop systems.
Technology Application
Pumped Storage
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Status
complete
Completion Date
2020
- Conventional Hydro
A Methodology for Rockwad Velocity and Predator Habitat
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Jenna Paul
A continuous sequence of velocity and predator refugia is imperative to the survival of out-migrating juvenile salmonids on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. Gaps in habitat along the river corridor increase the risk of predation, fatigue, stress, and reduced growth rates, and therefore, necessitate mitigation actions. However, traditional habitat enhancement methods, such as side-channel restoration, are not applicable on all reaches or during all flow conditions. Areas confined by levees, steep banks, or other topographical constraints require new methods to supplement migration habitat where it is missing or insufficient. A rockwad is a tree trunk (with root cluster) anchored to a large boulder. The boulder and root mass provide velocity and predator refugia, and therefore, allow juveniles to safely rest and eat during their emigration. Through hydrodynamic simulations, physical modeling, and fish behavior algorithms, this project will determine the optimum quantity and placement patterns to achieve suitable migration habitat conditions. It is expected that the results from this research lead to design recommendations for future habitat projects.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Fish and Aquatic Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2022
- Marine Energy
A Miniaturized Long-Life Low Frequency Acoustic Transmitter for Fish Tracking in Marine Enviroments
Lead Companies
PNNL
Lead Researcher (s)
- Huidong Li
The JSATS low-frequency acoustic transmitter will provide government agencies, researchers and marine energy operators a more capable tool to gain insights into marine animals’ behavior related to marine and hydrokinetic energy operations, contributing to producing environmentally sustainable, cost-effective marine energy and ensuring U.S. energy security. The development of this technology directly supports WPTO’s efforts to accelerate MHK project deployments and development of the MHK market.
Technology Application
Marine Energy
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Fish and Aquatic Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Marine Energy
A Modeling Approach to Support MRE and Coastal Resilience
Lead Companies
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lead Researcher (s)
- Taiping Wang
Technology Application
Marine Energy
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Shoreline and Riparian Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
A Real-Time and Autonomous Water Quality Monitoring System
Lead Companies
PNNL
Lead Researcher (s)
- Daniel Deng
PNNL is developing an enhanced real-time and autonomous water quality monitoring system to advance water quality measurement technologies for challenging locations, resulting in more informed management decisions regarding new and existing hydroelectric facilities that minimize or avoid environmental impacts and maximize operational efficiency.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Water Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
A Stratigraphic Approach to Characterize the Deposition and Storage of Organic Matter in Reservoir Sediments
Lead Companies
Oregon State University
Lead Researcher (s)
- Laurel Stratton
The relationship between carbon burial and sedimentation in reservoirs is unknown, exposing gaps in our fundamental understanding of the transport, processing, and deposition of sediment and organic matter in fluvial and lacustrine systems and contributing to uncertainty in our understanding of the net impact of dams to the global carbon budget. The 2011-2014 removal of two large dams on the Elwha River, Washington State, the largest dam removal yet completed globally, created extensive cutbank exposures of reservoir sediments, allowing the first characterization of the facies architecture of sediments through direct observation in reservoirs worldwide and providing an unparalleled opportunity to 1) assess the relationship between environmental influences, such as and changes in sediment supply, and their expression in the stratigraphic record, 2) assess the relationship between sedimentation processes and detrital organic carbon deposition and storage, and the importance of coarse-grained organic matter and woody debris to the total carbon budget of a reservoir, and 3) apply the insight gained from these reservoirs to evaluate current global estimates of carbon storage in reservoirs and develop a conceptual model of carbon burial in reservoirs to guide further research, as defined by characteristic stratigraphic “types”. Former Lake Mills, the younger, upstream reservoir, was characterized by a tripartite, subaerial Gilbert-style delta which prograded >1 km into the main reservoir from 1927 to 2011. Sediments were composed of coarse-grained topset beds, steeply dipping foreset beds, and a fine-grained, gently dipping prodelta. While individual event horizons were discernible in fine-grained sediments of former Lake Mills, their number and spacing did not correspond to known drawdown or flood events. Former Lake Aldwell, impounded from 1913 to 2011, was initially defined by the rapid progradation of a Gilbert-style, subaerial delta prior to the upstream completion of Glines Canyon Dam. However, the 1927 closure of Glines Canyon Dam upstream caused the delta to evolve to a fine-grained, mouth-bar type delta indicative of low, finer-grained sediment. This evolution, combined with a previously-unrecognized landslide deposit into the upper delta plain, suggests that understanding the exogenic influences on reservoir sedimentation is critical to interpretation and prediction of the sedimentation within individual systems. Former Lake Mills accumulated ~330 Gg of, with depositional-zone average accumulation rates from 229 to 9262 gCm-2 yr-1 , while Former Lake Aldwell accumulated ~ 91 Gg (263 to 2414 gCm-2 yr-1). Carbon storage in both reservoirs was dominated by heterogeneous, coarse organic matter and woody debris in the coarse-grained delta slope and relatively coarse-grained prodelta regions of the reservoirs, with little storage in the gravel-dominated, subaerial delta plains. Carbon accumulation in fine-grained lacustrine and prodelta sediments was relatively homogeneous, but turbidity flows from the Gilbertstyle delta slope in former Lake Mills delivered significantly more carbon to the prodelta than the mouth-bar style delta of former Lake Aldwell. C:N ratios support interpretation of most organic matter in both reservoirs as allochthonous. Sampling schemes based only on lacustrine and/or prodelta would underestimate of total carbon accumulation by up to 30% in former Lake Aldwell, but the overestimate by up to 47% in former Lake Mills. Global estimates of carbon sequestration rates in reservoir sediments vary by three orders of magnitude, while individual-reservoir estimates vary by four orders of magnitude and over only 37 reservoirs and a literature review of predictive variables suggests weak or contradictory relationships. A conceptual stratigraphic framework of four unique reservoir types suggests that organic matter deposition is intrinsically tied to sedimentation processes and that patterns of carbon storage vary systematically with the stratigraphy of reservoir sediments. Deltaically-dominated reservoirs (whether Gilbert style or shoalwater) appear to store most carbon in their deltaic and prodelta regions, while thalweg-style reservoirs exhibit a bimodal distribution, with allochthonous carbon preferentially routed along the former river thalweg and autochthonous deposited on the former floodplain. Lacustrine-style reservoirs are dominated by suspended sediment deposition and thus relatively homogeneous, but literature suggests these reservoirs are more variable than typically measured. Current methods of reservoir sampling fail to account for this systematic variation and tend to be biased toward fine sediment, suggesting that global reservoir carbon storage is underestimated.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Sediment Transport
Status
complete
Completion Date
2018
- Marine Energy
A Tidal-Powered, Real Time Passive Acoustic Sentinel System for Marine Mammal Alerts to Navigation in the Puget Sound Area
Lead Companies
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lead Researcher (s)
- Alicia Amerson
Technology Application
Marine Energy
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Environmental Impact
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
Aging Reservoirs, Climate, Operations, and Potential Cumulative Impacts to Water Quality, Clarity and Fisheries and Recreation
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Mike Horn
Can Reclamation develop a set of tools and techniques that will allow researchers to gain a better understanding of benthic turbidity layers, their composition, what causes them, and why in some areas have they only recently been observed? If this is potentially becoming a bigger problem, and if we can describe the cause, can we identify other reservoirs that are likely susceptible to this same phenomenon over time, and through mechanistic and modelling approaches provide solutions for Clark Canyon and other reservoirs?
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Water Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2020
- Conventional Hydro
Alternate Control Strategy for Dreissinids Using Carbon Dioxide
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Kevin Kelly
Can carbon dioxide be used as an environmentally neutral molluscicide for mitigation of zebra and quagga mussel macrofouling? Carbon dioxide is a natural chemical that does not require a separate or specialized production (e.g. fermentation), is already produced in large quantities, is recycled from initial combustion waste streams for good environmental stewardship, has an indefinite shelf life, nonflammable, is easy to handle and store, does not require electrical or mechanical power to deliver, and can be distributed easily and evenly in water, including hard-to-reach confined water. Through the carbonic acid/bicarbonate buffer, the change in pH of the water is limited. Addition of carbon dioxide also reduces the bioavailability of calcium in the water, thereby inhibiting shell growth. Only species that has taken up residence in the confined water (i.e. Dreissinids) would be exposed long enough to reach mortality levels. Once the water is freely exposed to the air at the outlet, purged, or the CO2 is stripped and reused, equilibrium is quickly re-established and PCO2 goes back to ambient pressure, so that it will not affect the downstream water ecology.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Fish and Aquatic Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2020
- Conventional Hydro
Alternate Control Strategy for Dreissinids Using Electrical Methods
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Kevin Kelly
Since the discovery of zebra mussels in the Laurentian Great Lakes in 1986 on natural gas well head and well markers, zebra and quagga mussels (Dreissena spp.) have spread across large areas of the continental United States. In industrial systems, control of Dreissena spp. biofouling has primarily concentrated on oxidizing and nonoxidizing chemicals. However, chemical treatments are usually not viable options in Reclamation facilities. There is a need for economical and environmentally safe control strategies for these major biofouling mussels in Reclamation raw water delivery systems. Alternative methods utilizing electricity has been shown to impact mussel behavior, including mortality and a reduction in the rate of byssogenesis (byssus attachment). Methods include electrified fields which inhibited passage of live veligers (larval life stage) and electrical currents which prevented attachments to metallic surfaces. This project proposes to carry out well established electrical testing procedures to investigate the effectiveness of electrical control methods under field conditions similar to those found in Reclamation facilities. The goals of this project are to determine and compare the electrical dosage and electrical power consumption of AC and DC applied at different waveforms (sinusoidal AC, squared DC, cycle rates, etc.) to induce quagga mussel mortality and inhibition of byssogenesis in the raw water parameters typically found in Reclamation facilities on the Lower Colorado River (LCR). Electrical dosage or power density can be determined by the measured ambient conductivity and the applied voltage gradient.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Fish and Aquatic Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2021
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Have questions about WaRP?
Contact Marla Barnes at: marla@hydro.org