Hydropower

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A new geospatial application developed by the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) allows users to map potential renewable energy resources in the United States. The interactive tool is called RE Atlas, and is free to use and available online.
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The DOE and Georgia Institute of Technology offer a new database highlighting the energy potential available in the U.S. from ocean tides. This online database is an important step towards providing information that can improve the performance, lower the costs, and accelerate the deployment of innovative water power technologies.
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NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has proposed a scheme for generating electric power from rivers and from ocean currents, tides, and waves that not entail the high maintenance costs of other schemes that call for submerged electric generators and cables.
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Aerospace engineers from the U.S. Air Force Academy are applying the principles that keep airplanes aloft to create a new wave energy system that is durable, efficient, and can be placed anywhere in the ocean - regardless of depth. While still in early design stages, computer and scale-model tests of the system suggest higher efficiencies than wind turbines.
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Duke University engineers have developed a novel approach that they believe can more efficiently harvest electricity from the motions of everyday life. Although motion is an abundant source of energy, only limited success has been achieved because the devices used only perform well over a narrow band of frequencies.
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U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced up to $32 million in Recovery Act funding, which is designed to support the deployment of hydropower turbines and control technologies to increase power generation and environmental stewardship at existing non-Federal hydroelectric facilities.
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Photovoltaic and wind energy plants, hydroelectric power stations, and biogas plants can be complex to design and maintain. In designing a hydroelectric power station, an engineer needs to know what the pressures, temperatures, and fluid flows will be in the facility. Virtual reality makes planning and operation easier.
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Renewable energy will be the world’s fastest-growing source of electricity generation over the next two decades, although it will still make up a relatively minor portion of the global energy supply, according to the Energy Information Administration. The majority of that increase will come from the use of wind power and water power, or hydropower.
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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) researchers who developed a new way to power robotic underwater vehicles believe a spin-off technology could help convert ocean energy into electrical energy on a much larger scale. The researchers hope that clean, renewable energy produced from the motion of the ocean and rivers could potentially meet an important part of the world’s demand for electricity.
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