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DOE OSTI2026

Opportunities in Hydropower and Pumped Storage Hydropower

Hydropower and pumped storage hydropower (PSH) are established technologies with a long-standing presence in the United States, but the industry remains dynamic with an active relicensing pipeline and growing interest in PSH to provide large-scale energy storage and grid services. NLR has developed a range of tools, data, and analysis that supports the evaluation of hydropower and PSH opportunities, complementing other DOE-supported efforts in this space. This presentation initiates a conversation around the future of hydropower and PSH and how it can inform the National Academy of Sciences investigation of possible DOE-supported regional energy-water technology pilots.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

New Tool Evaluates the Financial Viability of Pumped Storage Hydropower

The rapidly evolving electricity system with increasing variable renewable energy (VRE) resources provides both opportunities and challenges for the power sector. With the significant ramps and intermittency associated with VRE resources, the requirements and need for additional flexible resources increase. Pumped storage hydropower (PSH) provides flexibility to the electricity grid to replace fossil fuel plants, which are responsible for 25% of U.S. emissions. PSH projects support various aspects of power system operations, including flexibility, ramping capability, energy, ancillary service, black start, and others. The significant potential of hydropower requires understanding the different value drivers to the electricity system specific to the location of a project and then optimizing the plant for the different system values. Thus, determining the value of PSH projects and their many services and contributions to the electricity system can be a challenge for potential developers, system owners, regulators, policy makers, and consultants.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

U.S. Hydropower Relicensing and License Surrender Data and Metadata, 2026

The U.S. Hydropower Relicensing and License Surrender Database (2026) provides a comprehensive, nationwide snapshot (as of December 31, 2025) of hydropower projects across the United States that are undergoing Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) relicensing or license surrender processes. Compiled by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the dataset includes detailed project-level attributes such as geographic location, ownership type, waterway, project type (hydropower or pumped storage), regulatory milestones (e.g., Notice of Intent, application dates, FERC issuance dates), licensing process type (ILP, TLP, ALP), operational characteristics, capacity changes, settlement agreements, construction or turbine‑generator investments, and project status categories spanning relicensing, surrenders, exemptions, and terminations. Together, the relicensing and surrender records offer a detailed view of regulatory trends, infrastructure transitions, dam removals, and economic drivers influencing the evolution of the U.S. hydropower fleet.

Johnson, Megan [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000290141741)↗
DOE OSTI2025

U.S. Hydropower Market Report (2025 update)

This slide deck complements the fourth complete edition of the U.S. Hydropower Market Report (2024 update) and builds on the 2024 update. This update focuses on data and trends in 2024 and contextualizes this information compared to evolving high-level trends over the past 10–20 years. It contains information on U.S. hydropower (and pumped storage hydropower) development pipeline, relicenses, license surrenders, performance metrics, and supply chain.

Johnson, Megan [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000290141741)↗
DOE OSTI2025

U.S. Hydropower Market Report Data and Metadata (2025 update)

This database complements the U.S. Hydropower Market Report (2025 update). This update focuses on data and trends in 2024 and contextualizes this information compared to evolving high-level trends over the past 10–20 years. It contains data on U.S. hydropower (and pumped storage hydropower) development pipeline, relicenses, license surrenders, performance metrics, and supply chain.

Johnson, Megan [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000290141741)↗
DOE OSTI2025

Hydropower Market Report Story Map

This story map complements the fourth complete edition of the U.S. Hydropower Market Report (2024 update) and builds on the 2024 update. This update focuses on data and trends in 2024 and contextualizes this information compared to evolving high-level trends over the past 10–20 years. It contains information on U.S. hydropower (and pumped storage hydropower) development pipeline, relicenses, license surrenders, performance metrics, and supply chain.

Schmidt, Erik [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000244541330)↗
DOE OSTI2020

Microstructure, hardness and cavitation erosion resistance of different cold spray coatings on stainless steel 316 for hydropower applications

There is an urgent need for repair of hydropower components that have undergone damage due to cavitation. Conventional repair methods involve melting of materials and can deteriorate material properties and cause distortion. This study investigated the relevant properties of different materials using solid phase processing—cold spray technology. Stainless steel (SS) 316, Inconel 625 and CrC-NiCr materials were cold spray deposited onto base metal SS 316, respectively. Cold spray achieved dense uniform deposits with low level porosity, and intimate contact between the deposit and the base metal was observed. Severe plastic deformation imparted during the cold spray process resulted in significant grain size refinement, nanostructured regions were observed in the deposits across the interfacial area. Cold sprayed deposits exhibited elevated hardness in contrast to that of the base metal SS 316. The cavitation erosion resistance of the deposits was evaluated with a cavitation erosion jet adhering to ASTM G134. Both SS 316 and Inconel 625 achieved better cavitation erosion resistance when compared to that of the SS 316 base metal, with the former exhibiting close to a 4 times improvement.

Jiang, Xiujuan↗
DOE OSTI2026

Techno-Economic Evaluation of a 600MW Pumped Storage Hydropower Plant using the Pumped Storage Hydropower Valuation Tool

This paper presents a techno-economic evaluation of the proposed 600 MW, 8-hour Craig – Hayden pumped storage hydropower project using the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pumped Storage Hydropower Valuation Tool. The analysis integrates plant technical characteristics, regional grid conditions, and market-based operating assumptions to quantify stacked value streams from energy arbitrage, capacity, ancillary services, transmission congestion relief, and reliability. Both price taker and price influencer frameworks are applied to examine the impact of market participation and system interactions on lifecycle economic performance using Benefit - Cost Analysis and Multi - Criteria Decision Analysis. The results show that the price taker approach provides higher revenue estimates based on exogenous price signals, while the price influencer approach captures production cost savings, renewable curtailment reduction, and market price formation, yielding more conservative but system-representative outcomes. The study demonstrates the strategic value of long-duration PSH for enhancing operational flexibility, resource adequacy, and grid reliability in a high-renewable Western Interconnection.

Bhattacharyya, Arjun [ORNL] (ORCID:000900060976046↗
DOE OSTI2025

Existing Hydropower Assets (EHA) Capacity Plant Database, 2005-2024

Existing Hydropower Asset (EHA) Annual Capacity is a geospatial point-level dataset containing annual capacity over the years (2005-2024) and key characteristics of operational U.S. hydropower plants with 1 megawatt or greater of nameplate capacity. EIA form 860 and EHA are the primary sources of the derived data.

Johnson, Megan [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000290141741)↗
DOE OSTI2025

Existing Hydropower Assets (EHA) Capacity Factor Plant Database, 2005-2024

Existing Hydropower Asset (EHA) Annual Capacity Factor is a geospatial point-level dataset containing annual capacity factors over the years (2005-2024) and key characteristics of operational U.S. hydropower plants with 1 megawatt or greater of nameplate capacity. EIA form 860 and EHA are the primary sources of the derived data. Pumped storage and hybrid plants are excluded.

Johnson, Megan [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000290141741)↗
DOE OSTI2025

Comprehensive Database of Environmental Mitigations Extracted from FERC-Licensed Hydropower Projects Using Artificial Intelligence Techniques, 1998-2023

This dataset provides a comprehensive inventory of environmental mitigation measures required by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) licensed hydropower facilities from 461 licenses that were issued from 1998 to 2023. These licenses constitute 446 of the 1015 FERC projects that were active at the end of 2023. 17,612 mentions of environmental mitigations were identified and categorized in 128 unique categories. Mitigations were identified using a Natural Language Processing (NLP) approach, specifically with a Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformer (BERT) model. Model-derived results were then reviewed and updated by a subject matter expert as needed. This dataset introduces important enhancements to previous efforts to inventory environmental mitigations, such as including associated license text for each mitigation, tracking the number of instances a mitigation was identified within a license, and providing improved location information. These enhancements significantly expand the dataset's utility, offering greater analytical capabilities and ensuring reproducibility. The dataset is downloadable as a zip file containing the metadata and dataset files.

Ruggles, Thomas [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (OR↗