Community Highlights

The PSH Cost Model Web App, hosted on OpenEI, provides an interactive framework for estimating the lifecycle costs of pumped storage hydropower (PSH) projects. Users can adjust site characteristics, design parameters, and financial assumptions to evaluate capital expenditures, operations and maintenance costs, and economic feasibility. The platform is designed to support structured cost discussions among developers, planners, and financing partners evaluating long-duration energy storage projects.

By increasing visibility into cost drivers and enabling standardized modeling approaches, the tool advances transparent economic analysis for pumped storage development.

NREL PSH Cost Model Web App

HydroBoost, developed by Idaho National Laboratory and available through the INL Software Catalog, is a publicly accessible tool for evaluating hydropower project value streams. The platform supports scenario-based modeling of revenue potential, capacity value, and grid service contributions under varying market and operational assumptions. Users can modify financial and technical inputs to assess project economics across a range of deployment contexts.

By improving transparency in valuation analysis and clarifying hydropower’s service contributions to energy systems, HydroBoost supports more rigorous economic assessment and informed investment discussions.

INL Software Catalog – HydroBoost

The Salmon in the Classroom curriculum, sponsored by the Benton Conservation District (BCD), is an annual program in which fourth and fifth grade students across eastern Washington raise fish in the classroom. The curriculum culminates in the release of the fish into the Columbia River during the Salmon Summit, where students learn about fish passage, hydropower, and related careers. With support from the Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office, researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) partner with BCD bring the latest science on hydropower and fish passage to thousands of students in person and via live stream, including live demonstrations of juvenile salmon tagging and release. 

The educators involved in Salmon in the Classroom are also invited to participate in PNNL’s Teacher-Scientist Partnership—a professional development opportunity for educators to work directly with PNNL researchers and staff to tackle real-world scientific challenges. The program aims to help teachers take real-world problems and lessons—in this case about hydropower—back to their students to inspire the future workforce.  

Learn more about Salmon in the Classroom at the BCD website. 

Navigating federal and state energy regulations and permitting can be a complicated process for developers and regulators, which can slow investments in energy projects. Launched in 2015, the Regulatory and Permitting Information Desktop (RAPID) toolkit is designed to help make it easier to navigate the regulatory processes for hydropower, geothermal, solar, and bulk transmission. Specifically, the free toolkit: 

• offers easy access to permit applications, processes, and manuals
• outlines regulatory requirements and clarifies the permitting process
• provides best practices, case studies, and how-to information
• facilitates communication among stakeholders

Since 2015, the toolkit has been accessed from all over the United States by users at federal agencies, universities, state and local governments, utilities and developers, and consultants. Hydropower stakeholders can also provide input to continue improving the toolkit over time and keep it updated. RAPID was developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Renewable Energy and the Office of Electricity, with additional support from Tetra Tech, Environmental Management and Planning Solutions Inc., Kearns and West, and Herrick Solutions.

Check out the RAPID toolkit.

Economics is a key driver behind the mix of energy sources contributing to the U.S. electric grid. The market value of different energy sources—such as hydropower, solar, wind, or fossil fuels—can determine how competitive they are on the power market. But it is a challenge to accurately estimate the value of hydropower grid services because some of hydro’s key attributes—flexibility and reliability—aren’t included in traditional valuations. To better reflect hydropower’s value, researchers from the Electric Power Research Institute simulated different energy and operating scenarios in the Western Electric Coordinating Council (WECC) region, which encompasses the western United States and parts of Canada and Mexico. With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to quantify the value of hydropower in the electric grid, this research established the many value streams available to hydropower and identified opportunities to better assess the value of the full range of services that hydropower provides.

To learn more, read the report and check out a summary from Hydro Review.