Progress in Developing New Hydropower Turbines

Although the technology for generating hydropower is well developed and has been successfully deployed in the U.S. for more than a century, improvements are still possible and needed.  Fish mortality during downstream passage through hydropower turbines can be substantially decreased, and downstream water quality can be enhanced with advanced designs that are just starting to come into use now.  Since the early 1990s, federal and private partnerships have developed in the search for improved hydropower technology.  The U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been the leading federal agencies involved.  The Electric Power Research Institute, the National Hydropower Association, plus a number of developers, utilities, and manufacturers have also participated in different ways.  This paper will describe the history of these unique public-private partnerships and the new technologies that they have produced.