Citation
Megan M. Johnson and Rocio Uría-Martínez. 2023. U.S. Hydropower Relicensing Pipeline Database, 2023. HydroSource, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
Relicensing is an important milestone in the lifecycle of U.S. FERC-licensed hydropower and pumped storage hydropower (PSH) plants. The terms and conditions of a new license may involve substantial capital investment and changes in mode of operation. Additionally, some licensees decide not to pursue relicensing and instead apply for a license surrender. The U.S. Hydropower Relicensing Pipeline dataset is a geospatial dataset that contains information to help track trends in U.S. hydropower relicensing and license surrender activities. The dataset contains information about the relicensing (or surrender) timeline and other attributes (e.g., process type, settlement agreement) for all FERC-licensed projects with:
- a relicense issued between 2007 and 2022
- a pending relicense application as of December 31, 2022
- a license surrender issued between 2007 and 2022
- a pending license surrender as of December 31, 2022
Science Themes
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Lifecycle of US Hydropower Facilities
The lifecycle of a hydropower project involves several stages, from initial planning/resource assessment through to decommissioning. Each stage is crucial to ensuring that the hydropower project is successful, sustainable, and minimally impacts the environment and local communities. The Lifecycle of US Hydropower Facilities story map present a high-level overview of the various stages in the lifecycle of a hydropower project.
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