Power Generation
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Until recently Power generation at dams meant hydropower, however now other means of power generation is coming in the form of solar power, particularly floating solar panels. It can be in the future, types of power generation around dams. Hydropower.
Hydropower, or hydroelectric power, is one of the oldest and largest sources of renewable energy, which uses the natural flow of moving water to generate electricity. The energy created by the elevation difference of the water passing through the dam is captured by a generator and transmitted to a nearby power grid. The United States is the fourth largest producer of hydropower in the world. Dams produce approximately 6.3 percent of the nation’s electricity generation. Not many dams were built for hydroelectric power generation. However, the dams with hydroelectric power generation have proven useful as a source of power and a reliable way to start power generation in times of the power grid being disrupted. There are three types of dams built for hydroelectric power: Impoundment which is the most common, diversion, and pump storage. It is estimated that in the US only 2300 dams provided power as of 2020.
Floating Solar Floating solar was first surfaced as a possibility at the Cohoes Reservoir in New York State. The City Engineer came up with the idea as a way to partly recoup their investment in a reservoir cover project that they were undertaking. It is a small reservoir ringed by embankment on much of its perimeter (not a traditional in-river reservoir) and needed to be completely covered to meet EPA drinking water requirements. New York State Dam Safety looked at it, and concluded that the solar panel installation did not represent a dam modification and did not need a dam safety permit
Below are resources where you can go and get more information on dams used in power generation.
https://www.americanrivers.org/resource/the-practitioners-guide-to-hydropower-dam-removal/
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (ferc.gov)
Introduction Video https://www.nrel.gov/news/video/hydropower-energy-basics-text.html
Training Introduction (Primer) https://www.ferc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/HydropowerPrimer.pdf
Wikipedia has a list of the larger hydroelectric power dams in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hydroelectric_power_stations_in_the_United_States
Revision ID: 8118
Revision Date: 12/17/2024