Letter From WPTO Director Jennifer Garson

I am excited to share the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) 2022–2023 Accomplishments Report. In our report, we highlight a selection of the impressive work underway across the country to advance the hydropower and marine energy sectors. 

As we publish this report, I am also marking the end of my tenure as the office’s director. I am incredibly proud of everything WPTO and its partners at the national laboratories and in industry and academia have accomplished together during my time in the office. With that in mind, I’m excited to share some of our more recent successes. 

Hydropower already has an important role in our electricity grid that will only grow as it evolves to incorporate more variable renewable energy sources. It also helps ensure the grid remains reliable and stable so that electricity is available when we need it. Through WPTO's Hydropower Program, researchers examined how advanced manufacturing and materials could benefit the sector, studied how hydropower's value is expected to increase as we transition to a clean energy grid, adapted an open-source software solution to support facility cybersecurity, and engaged the next generation of the hydropower workforce.

We also continue to advance marine energy, which can power remote and coastal communities, the growing blue economy, and the U.S. power grid with reliable, clean energy. In 2023, we opened our U.S. Tidal Energy Advancement funding opportunity, which was funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and which represented DOE's largest investment in marine energy and WPTO's largest funding opportunity to date. We announced the selected projects in February 2024, and I'm excited to watch their progress! Through WPTO's Marine Energy Program, researchers also deployed devices in a stream in Maine and off the coast of Massachusetts, advanced critical testing infrastructure at several national laboratories, and used cutting-edge systems to help developers collect data on their marine energy device prototypes.

This report offers a glimpse into some of the incredible projects underway to advance water power technologies and support our country's clean energy goals. I hope you enjoy learning about them. I also want to thank everyone who contributed not only to these projects but also to the many WPTO-supported efforts not included here. I look forward to continuing to follow your work, and I cannot wait to see what you accomplish!

Sincerely, 

Jennifer Garson
Director, Water Power Technologies Office
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
U.S. Department of Energy