The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) is hosting the Hydropower Environmental and Industry Research and Development (R&D) Summit for 2024.
This summit helps fulfill one of the commitments outlined in the office’s Multi-Year Program Plan to enable research, development and testing of new technologies by facilitating discussions with representatives from environmental and industry organizations. These discussions outline the state-of-the-science and gather input on current R&D needs, which provide actionable insights into technological and scientific opportunities to advance sustainable hydropower in the U.S.
The first session is scheduled virtually on May 16 from 1 to 3 pm ET, on the subject of greenhouse gas emissions and hydropower operations. Click here to register. The other two talks will take place in July 2024 (restoration of connectivity) and a time to be determined in the summer of 2024 (environmental flows and sediment management).
This series started in 2017 with a Hydropower Executive Summit that brought together industry representatives, DOE and the national laboratories to explore challenges, approaches and ongoing work in the hydropower sector.
In 2018, WPTO and national labs took information gathered from the 2017 executive summit and met with environmental agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGO) to discuss R&D needs and learn about ongoing initiatives. In 2019, the Hydropower Environmental Research Summit brought in a small group of industry representatives to share industry-led, WPTO supported work to advance sustainability and improve hydropower environmental performance.
The summit did not meet from 2020 through 2022 due to challenges from COVID-19 but did return in 2023 as the first joint Environmental and Industry R&D Summit. Through roundtable discussions and interactive activities, 2023 summit attendees identified nearly 100 new priorities and needs, which informed the three topic areas to be covered in the 2024 Summit Talks.
