In response to growing demand for credible, unbiased information about developing small hydropower projects in Alaska, the U.S. Department of Energ...
Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs
October 21, 2016
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In response to growing demand for credible, unbiased information about developing small hydropower projects in Alaska, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Indian Energy hosted the first-ever DOE Tribal Hydropower Forum in Anchorage on Sept. 21, 2016.
As Office of Indian Energy Alaska Program Manager Givey Kochanowski said in his opening remarks, DOE’s intent was to initiate a dialogue about how Alaska’s largely untapped hydropower potential might be leveraged to address the energy challenges rural Alaska is facing. Dr. Boualem Hadjerioua, Deputy Water Power Program Manager and Senior Research Engineer at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), kicked off the day-long event with an in-depth look at that potential.
Noting that hydropower currently represents 20.3% of Alaska’s energy supply, compared to 7% for the United States as a whole, Hadjerioua told attendees hydropower could potentially provide 100% of Alaska’s energy needs given the capital to finance new projects. Hadjerioua backed up that statement with an Alaska-focused overview of a recent ORNL study that identified new hydropower resource potential across the United States.
Completed in 2013, ORNL’s New Stream-reach Development (NSD) resource assessment used geospatial data to analyze 3 million U.S. stream segments over 204 hydraulic subregions to identify new hydropower development potential from undeveloped “stream-reaches,” or uninterrupted stretches of streams and rivers, including those in Alaska. The results are published in ORNL's New Stream-reach Development: A Comprehensive Assessment of Hydropower Energy Potential in the United States. While not intended to determine economic feasibility or justify financial investments in individual site development, the NSD report is intended to foster improved decision making and strategic planning by:
- Identifying stream-reaches with high energy intensity
- Classifying new potential areas for hydropower development using a range of technical, socioeconomic, and environmental characteristics.
In Alaska, the NSD assessments were a collaborative effort among ORNL, the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA), and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Using AEA’s hydropower database, they evaluated 2,200 potential projects from more than 400 reports, with the goal of determining total actual project potential by identifying which projects in the database are technically feasible.
Of the original data set of 2,200 potential hydropower projects in Alaska, Hadjerioua said the NSD assessment team eliminated 1,763 based on criteria such as being currently under development, being too large for rural development, posing land compatibility and environmental concerns, and being too remote. That left a total of 437 sites identified as technically feasible for hydropower project development. Together, those 437 sites represent 4.7 gigawatts of potential installed capacity, Hadjerioua said, noting that 68% of the sites represent potential installed capacity of less than 5 megawatts each and would therefore be run-of-river projects that don’t require dams.
Putting some context around these findings, Hadjerioua followed with a more granular look at the Alaska analysis, examining how the detailed data the NSD collected for the 437 sites can be used to calculate both the energy and the social benefits of a proposed project in order to build the strongest possible case for project financing. A key focus of the NSD study, he said, was to quantify not only the energy benefits (generation) of sites but also the nonenergy benefits, such as grid stability, load balancing, flood control, navigation, recreation, and water supply (irrigation).
For those interested in developing hydropower projects in Alaska, the key takeaway is the importance of quantifying the multipurpose benefits of any proposed system. “You need to know and communicate the social benefits of the project,” Hadjerioua said, noting that nonenergy benefits are seldom considered in hydropower resource system analyses. “This will increase the chance of financial institutions, stakeholders, and the public accepting the project.”
The afternoon panel discussions that followed Hadjerioua’s presentation explored the latest research and technology innovations in small hydropower, the various types of hydropower, their potential applications in remote Alaska, and what is currently working in Alaska today.
This was the second technology-focused discussion the Office of Indian Energy has hosted in Alaska. The first, held at the NANA Regional Corporation offices in Anchorage in September 2015, focused on opportunities for developing solar electricity in the state.
Read an Alaska Dispatch News article about how the Office of Indian Energy's plans to expand the information resources and technical support available to those interested in developing tribal hydropower projects in Alaska.