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 as stakeholders prioritize reliable domestic energy sources in the coming years. The Environmental Decision Support (EDS) Toolkit directly addresses the lengthy environmental impact assessment phase of the licensure process, offering advanced, data-driven resources that enhance transparency and efficiency for all affected parties, from federal and state government agencies to communities and NGOs .
These Stakeholders can use the EDS toolkit to:
- Rapidly pinpoint key information gaps regarding potential waterway impacts.
- Align diverse stakeholder interests through consistent, transparent, and scientifically validated methods and metrics.
- Facilitate consistent and effective communication for rapid consensus on the allocation of limited resources to key issues.
Originally launched several years ago, the updated EDS toolkit boasts a robust set of tools capable of reducing negotiation timelines and facilitating infrastructure development crucial for energy security, including:
- An interactive River Function Questionnaire developed to assess ecological functions potentially impacted by hydropower projects. The questions are based on a comprehensive database with over 3,000 environmental metrics collected from peer-reviewed scientific literature and industry reports.
- A Prioritization Module that allows users to identify and narrow down key concerns related to one or more of six impacts categories: Biota and Biodiversity, Water Quality, Geomorphology, Connectivity and Fragmentation, Hydrology, and Landscape and Land Cover.
- A newly integrated “What’s Next?” module links to related information about previously approved environmental studies and mitigations and to related federal and state regulatory information from DOE’s Hydropower Regulatory and Permitting Information Desktop (RAPID) Toolkit.
The EDS toolkit will be helpful in bolstering U.S. energy efficiency and security through more efficient hydropower licensing processes. By streamlining the flow of communications and centralizing critical licensing data, the EDS will support healthy rivers while saving hydropower developers time and money.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researcher Esther Parish recently highlighted the Environmental Decision Support (EDS) Toolkit during a presentation at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Washington as part of an event highlighting energy research collaboration between the US and Norway through a previous Memorandum of Understanding. A pilot version of the EDS Toolkit was tested by scientists from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) during the Spring of 2024, after which researchers expressed interest in adapting the toolkit for use by the Nordic nation’s sizeable hydropower industry, which generates 90% of the country’s power.
Explore the enhanced EDS toolkit today at: hydroeds.ornl.gov