News

Environmental mitigation measures are a critical step in the hydropower licensing process, addressing facilities’ effects on fish, wildlife, water quality and other essential river functions. However, the mitigation measures required of hydropower facilities are highly varied and understanding how they are applied across projects and over time often requires extensive manual review. Researchers at Oak […]

Understanding project costs is one of the earliest and most important steps in hydropower development—but detailed cost estimates require significant time and resource investments that may not be available in early planning stages. To support faster, data-informed decision-making, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created an updated Baseline Cost Model (BCM) for hydropower projects. […]

Sediment accumulation behind dams is a widespread challenge for reservoirs across the United States. Over time, trapped sediment reduces water storage capacity, disrupts dam and reservoir operations, degrades water quality and wildlife habitat, and contributes to downstream erosion. Unfortunately, addressing this issue is complicated by incomplete and scattered sedimentation data and highly variable sedimentation rates […]

Accurate information about river temperatures is essential for managing energy and water resources across the United States. Water temperature and availability affect the operation of thermoelectric power plants such as nuclear and natural gas facilities, which generate more than 70% of the nation’s electricity. River temperatures also influence hydropower performance, aquatic ecosystems, and water quality. […]

Hydropower is a crucial source of on-demand energy in the United States that makes an essential contribution to a secure power grid. Effective management and planning of Hydropower assets depends on up-to-date, detailed, and reliable data. The 2025 update of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Existing Hydropower Assets (EHA) databases meets this critical need by providing […]

Reliable records of monthly hydropower generation are essential for analyzing seasonal patterns in power supply and planning for long-term energy resilience. In U.S. hydropower plants, however, these monthly values have historically been imprecisely estimated or else altogether unavailable. This data gap has limited the accuracy of studies exploring interrelated outcomes such as hydropower reliability, drought […]

Hydropower continues to play a critical role in supporting the U.S. electric grid, providing nearly 6% of utility-scale generation and the vast majority of long-duration energy storage. But until the launch of the U.S. Hydropower Market Report (HMR) in 2015, there was no centralized, regularly updated source of information on the status and direction of […]

Hydropower licensing is a lengthy process in the US, often taking seven or more years to complete. Notice of intent filings with the Federal Environmental Regulatory Commission (FERC) indicate that the number of projects filing for licensing will rapidly increase across most regions of the US over the next decade as former licenses expire and […]

The HydroSource Data Explorer (HDE) is a powerful web-based geospatial application designed to help researchers, policymakers, and industry professionals access and analyze diverse hydropower-related datasets. It provides streamlined access to authoritative data on hydropower assets and potential across the United States, enabling data-driven decision-making to support domestic power generation and grid stability. The HDE offers […]