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Training, Testing, and Demonstration Capability for In-Conduit Hydropower in Water Systems

This white paper discusses the development of in-conduit hydro turbine testing and training capabilities to enhance energy-water resilience by promoting in-conduit hydropower systems. These systems are installed in irrigation or municipal water distribution pipes, and the project ...

Reese, S., and DeNeale, S.

Adaptive 3D Printed Micro-Hydropower for Resilient Grids: Digital-to-Deployment Framework

We propose to enhance the resilience of the U.S. electricity grid by enabling the rapid, adaptive, and on-demand manufacturing of site-specific micro-to-small hydropower systems for low-head dams. This approach directly addresses the nation's untapped 85,000+ non-powered dams (NPD...

Kim, P., Chawla, K., Hassen, A., Roschli, A., Post, B., Saha, S., and Mueller, R.

Unlocking Hydropower Potential from Environmental Flows for Energy-Water Resilience

This white paper examines how mandated environmental flow (E-flow) releases at hydropower dams can be leveraged to generate renewable energy while maintaining ecological integrity. Environmental flows sustain aquatic ecosystems but often bypass turbines, representing lost generati...

DeNeale, S., Connor, M., and McManamay, R.

Energy-Water Resilience through Underground Pumped Storage Hydropower (UPSH): Integrating Water Infrastructure for Enhanced Energy and Water Security

This white paper provides an overview of Underground Pumped Storage Hydropower (UPSH), a concept that addresses the intersection of water for energy and energy-water topics by utilizing subsurface formations for energy storage, leveraging excess surface water, treated wastewater, ...

Atkinson, T., Acharya, M., Russell, G., Colldeweih, R., Saulsbury, B., Reese, S., Mosier, T., and Schmidt, H.

Supporting adoption of advanced forecast informed reservoir operations tools to improve agricultural and municipal water and energy outcomes

Expanding the use of advanced forecast-informed reservoir operations tools can optimize or improve water delivery and storage for energy generation, irrigation, and municipal uses. Advanced forecast-informed data and tools are increasingly being integrated into large-scale reservo...

Jorgensen, J., Giovando, J., Pracheil, B., Hou, H., and Niazi, H.

Forecast-Informed, Market-Responsive Conjunctive Operations for Multi-Reservoir Water-Energy Systems

The white paper, "Forecast-Informed, Market-Responsive Conjunctive Operations for Multi-Reservoir Water-Energy Systems" , addresses the water-for-energy and energy-for-water nexus by proposing a framework for co-optimizing hydropower and cascading reservoir operations alongside fl...

Pavicevic, M., Mork, E., Yu, A., Herman, J., Emmons, J., and Ploussard, Q.

Unlocking Small-scale Hydropower using Water Infrastructure for National Energy Security

Reliable local energy generation and long-duration energy storage are critical to balancing peak demands and providing distributed emergency backup near both urban and rural populations. However, small-scale (< 10 MW) hydropower faces barriers, including siting, permitting, water ...

Stokes-Draut, J., Taylor, M., and Rao, P.

Hybrid Bioenergy and Hydropower Systems: Leveraging Heterogeneous Biomass and Wastes from Watersheds

Sandia National Laboratories and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) explore the water-for-energy nexus in this white paper, focusing on the impact of heterogeneous watershed waste materials on hydropower facilities. They identify key challenges--such as pile burning, wildfires, and d...

Quiroz-Arita, C., and Paudel, R.

Employing AI-Enabled Prognostics for Energy-Water Resilience

This white paper focuses on strengthening the resilience and efficiency of hydropower systems at the energy-water nexus through AI-enabled prognostics and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation. It emphasizes integrating digital intelligence with physical infrastructure to optimize...

Zhao, S., Qiu, F., and Agalgaonkar, Y.