Community Highlights

Field research reported in Hydro Review indicates that Natel Energy’s fish-friendly turbine designs can improve survival outcomes for migratory fish species passing through hydropower facilities. The turbine geometry is engineered to reduce strike probability, minimize shear forces, and manage pressure changes during passage while maintaining generation performance. Early findings suggest the approach offers a viable pathway for projects seeking improved environmental compatibility in ecologically sensitive waterways.

Advances in turbine design that integrate biological performance considerations with energy production objectives represent an important step toward modernized hydropower technologies.

Hydro Review – Research Shows Safe Fish Passage Through Natel Turbines

 

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 Open Energy Information (OpenEI) platform hosts an open-access collection of hydropower workforce development reports, analytical tools, and reference materials to support educators, employers, and policy planners. The Hydropower STEM and Workforce Reports section aggregates studies on labor trends, training gaps, skill needs, and career pathway development across the water power sector. By consolidating materials from multiple authors and institutions, the platform provides a shared knowledge base for workforce strategy and education planning.

Improved access to workforce data enhances transparency and supports coordinated efforts to align hydropower education, training programs, and industry needs.

OpenEI – Hydropower STEM / Workforce Reports

 

The Foundation for Water & Energy Education (FWEE) delivers hydropower-focused training programs and experiential learning opportunities for teachers and students throughout the Pacific Northwest. Through educator workshops, curriculum development support, and STEM Career Academies, FWEE connects classroom instruction with applied water and energy system concepts. Students gain exposure to hydropower technologies, resource management principles, and career pathways spanning engineering, environmental science, and utility operations.

By strengthening regional energy literacy and supporting early-career exposure to hydropower systems, FWEE contributes to long-term workforce development in communities where hydropower infrastructure plays a foundational role in energy supply and water management.

Foundation for Water & Energy Education – Teacher & Student Opportunities

Wildfires can affect hydropower facilities by altering water quality and timing of runoff. Forest restoration efforts can mitigate these damaging effects and result in more water supply—further benefiting hydropower by increasing the total potential revenue from water power generation. But it is challenging to accurately estimate the value of added water supply from forest restoration efforts for hydropower facilities. 

Researchers from Blue Forest Conservation, University of California Davis, and The Nature Conservancy simulated the effects of forest restoration in a California reservoir system and found that it could increase average annual water runoff to rivers in the watershed. That additional water supply would boost hydropower electricity generation and potentially increase revenue equivalent to 8-15% of the initial forest restoration costs. It’s an example of how improving the valuation of power and non-power hydropower services would have benefits for hydropower and beyond. 

Learn more about the research from Blue Forest. 

The National Hydropower Association elevated the visibility of hydropower as a renewable energy source through its digital advertising campaign, Hydropower: The Solution That’s Right in Front of You. The campaign took a storytelling approach that leveraged engaging photos and videos to appeal to a broad audience on social media and streaming platforms. The materials highlighted how hydropower provides clean and reliable energy, supports other renewables, has a long record of success as well as room for future innovation, and provides additional value through recreation opportunities. The impactful campaign reached millions and had a largely favorable impression, boosting hydropower’s visibility as a renewable energy and communicating its myriad value to a wide audience. 

Learn more about the campaign from NHA. 

Long-lived hydropower infrastructure must be kept well-maintained and periodically modernized to ensure functionality and safety—particularly in the face of altered rainfall patterns and flood risk due to climate change. To inform emergency and safety planning in the state of California, a consortium of researchers funded by the Yuba Water Agency, California Department of Water Resources, and the National Science Foundation developed ARkStorm 2.0, which simulates possible 1000-year extreme storm and flood scenarios. Based on historic megastorm events in California, ARkStorm 2.0 also incorporates the effects of climate change and advanced climate and hydrological science to improve simulations of these possible weather events. The information in ARkStorm 2.0 about extreme storm and flood scenarios can help inform dam safety investments and emergency planning, to prepare for extreme weather events that can lead to spillway damage, downstream erosion, and even dam failure. 

Learn more about ARkStorm 2.0.

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.