DOE’s Hydropower Vision report identified 1.7 GW of hydropower potential in undeveloped sites and waterways, with an additional 15 GW enabled by the emergence of innovative—even transformational—technologies and designs to reduce costs and meet environmental performance objectives. To facilitate development of new stream-reach resources, innovation in standardization, modularity, and environmental compatibility is required. In addition, 43 pumped storage hydropower (PSH) plants provide over 95% of utility-scale electrical energy storage in the United States. To expand the value and contribution of PSH in the future electricity system, research into storage technology designs, optimization, and modeling tools is needed. To address these gaps, this FOA solicits new design concepts and associated modeling and analysis for standard modular hydropower and PSH.

The FOA may include the following topic areas:

Topic Area 1:  Facility Design for Standard Modular Hydropower Development

Topic Area 2:  New Use Cases for Pumped Storage Hydropower

Sub-topic 2.1:  Innovative conceptual designs for pumped storage systems

Sub-topic 2.2:  Modeling and analyzing the role of pumped storage in asset and system optimization