Investing In Hydropower: Sustainable Energy Solutions For Las Vegas – As states set ambitious targets to increase the use of renewable energies, hydropower can help them achieve their goals. But environmental concerns have kept investment in hydropower at a trickle.

On Christmas Eve 1968, the astronauts of Apollo 8 took a photo from space that changed the way the world saw itself. It was the first photograph of Earth, revealing “the glowing marble of blue oceans, and green forests and brown mountains brushed by white clouds.”

Investing In Hydropower: Sustainable Energy Solutions For Las Vegas

President Obama recently invoked that phenomenon in a June speech announcing his new climate action plan, which called for the U.S. to dramatically increase its use of renewable energies. “Over the past four years, we have doubled the amount of electricity we generate through zero-carbon wind and solar power,” the president said. “So the plan I’m announcing today will help double our energy from wind and solar again.”

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What the president didn’t mention in his speech was America’s—and the world’s—largest renewable energy source: water. That blue marble that dominates the view of Earth from space accounts for more than 60 percent of all renewable energy in the U.S., which rarely seems to get the same billing as wind and solar.

For a clean and renewable energy source — one that doesn’t pollute the air because no fossil fuels are burned, and is renewable because it uses the Earth’s water cycle to generate electricity — one might think that hydropower would get as much attention and investment as other non-carbon ones. Energy sources. But in general, hydropower is not even considered a renewable energy in most states, or often by the federal government. Hence, it raises the question whether hydropower is a renewable energy or not. The answer is important because states will base policies on meeting ambitious renewable energy targets.

The first dam in the United States to generate electricity using hydraulic reaction turbines was on the Fox River in Appleton, Wis., in 1882. It was revolutionary at the time and the results were very impressive. A dam-building spree: From 1905 to 1930, many large, iconic dams were built in the West, including the famous Hoover and Roosevelt Dams. At that time, almost 40 percent of the nation’s electricity came from hydropower.

By the middle of the century, the development of hydroelectric power through dams was slowing down as other power generation—nuclear, natural gas, and coal—gained momentum. Today, hydropower accounts for only about 6 percent of America’s electricity supply, with the largest hydroelectric producers in the West: Washington, California, and Oregon. Outside the United States, hydropower accounts for 16 percent of global electricity generation.

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There are many types of hydroelectric facilities, but all of them are powered by the kinetic energy of flowing water as it moves downstream. Turbines and generators capture and convert that energy into electricity, which is then fed into the power grid. Water itself is not depleted or used in this process, and because it is a never-ending, constantly recharging system, hydropower is defined as renewable energy by the Environmental Protection Agency.

But it is not considered renewable by all. It comes with some “pretty significant environmental baggage,” says John Seebach, senior director of federal river management with the US Rivers Conservancy. “The reluctance to call hydropower a renewable energy is based on the impact of dams on fisheries and water flows.”

Many large dams prevent migrating fish from reaching their spawning grounds. Dam reservoirs affect the flow, temperature and sediment load of rivers and streams. Over the years, these factors have drastically reduced fish populations. At one time, millions of salmon ran up the Klamath River in Oregon and California. The construction of four barrages across the river reduced the flow of fish to a fraction.

That’s why, in most states, hydropower doesn’t count toward utilities’ renewable energy mandates—and there’s already plenty of water there. More than 30 states have renewable portfolio standards (RPS) that require utilities to generate a percentage of their power from renewable sources. Accounting for all hydropower would significantly reduce the impact of these standards, particularly in states where hydropower already provides a significant amount of electricity. In those states, experts say counting it will encourage the development of new renewable sources. Similarly, if hydropower is classified as renewable, some states may need to reset their targets and may reach unrealistically high targets.

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California, the second largest producer of hydropower in the United States, set targets for renewable energy sources in 2002 and 2011. Utilities in that state must produce one-third from such sources by 2020. Hydroelectricity. It allows utilities to count toward the renewable mandate only hydropower produced by small hydropower projects with a generating capacity of 30 MW or less. Last year, a bill in the California state legislature would allow utilities to count large hydroelectric facilities as well.

The Sierra Club and the nonprofit watchdog The Utility Reform Network (TURN) opposed the bill. The reversal “would effectively lower RPS targets for existing utilities with large hydropower in their portfolios and significantly undermine the RPS program’s impact on the development of new renewable energy projects in California and the West,” TURN wrote. The group estimates that changing the rules would reduce California’s renewable energy target from 33 percent to 30 percent — and possibly more if utilities are allowed to increase hydro imports from neighboring states. Ultimately, the bill failed to get out of committee.

California’s current size disparity reflects similar policies in other states. Nationwide, large hydropower plants typically don’t count toward renewable energy targets. However each state counts some hydropower in their RPS. However, how this is calculated varies from state to state. Michigan and Missouri, for example, don’t count hydro if new dams or significant expansion of existing dams are required. California and Iowa are limited to energy produced by small hydroelectric plants. Ohio allows utilities to count it, as long as the facilities do not harm fish, wildlife or water quality.

But some groups, such as the National Hydropower Association and the Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank, argue that all hydropower must count if states want to meet their renewable energy goals. “If lawmakers want to lower energy costs, encourage innovation, and reduce emissions, they need to repeal all mandates and subsidies and create a level playing field for all energy sources,” Taylor Smith, a policy analyst at the Institute, recently wrote. “Government should not pick winners and losers, especially in the energy sector.” If states include all renewable sources in RPS mandates, these groups say, it will essentially create competitive pressure on wind and solar to drive down costs and increase scale.

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Besides, proponents argue, hydropower has many virtues. Not only is it clean and renewable, but it is essential for new “intermittent” renewables like wind and solar. Hydro output can be changed quickly and easily to keep the power grid balanced as daily sunlight and wind wax and wane. Also, water from the rivers is a purely domestic resource, which means there are almost no conflicts with foreign suppliers and no interruptions as a result of labor strikes or transport problems abroad. According to the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, hydroelectric turbines are capable of converting 90 percent of available energy into electricity. It is more efficient than any other form of generation, including the best fossil fuel power plant, which is only 50 percent efficient.

President Obama may not have mentioned hydropower in his June speech, but it was mentioned in his climate action plan. The administration agrees with supporters that hydropower is essential to meeting renewable energy goals, which will double by 2020. To that end, Obama wants to encourage the development of hydropower at existing dams. Across the country, there are more than 80,000 dams, of which only 3 percent are used to generate electricity. Management sees this as an opportunity to expand renewable energy by adding generators or retrofitting existing non-electric dams.

All parties generally agree on one point: There is no need to build new dams to harvest electricity. As environmentalists see it, it makes more sense to incentivize dam operators to increase efficiency. “In our view, that’s the best pitch,” says Seebach of American Rivers. “The dams are already there.”

And, he adds, “the technology to mitigate the damages of dams is better in the world than it was 20 or 30 years ago.” Take the fish ladders. Several federal agencies have for years overseen the construction of fish ladders at dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers in Washington state, the largest producer of U.S. hydroelectricity. In July, Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. The Bureau of Reclamation released a draft assessment of their progress on salmon populations. To date, they are on track to meet individual dam survival targets, it says

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