Water Power 2024
NREL's water power research has embraced a wide range of expertise and technologies, as demonstrated in the highlights below. Here is a brief overview of our Fiscal Year 2024 achievements and the meaningful impacts they're making in water power.
Program Highlights
Collaboration in Action
Where Partnership Meets Progress
Partnering with NREL water power offers industry, academia, and stakeholders unparalleled access to cutting-edge research and expertise in renewable energy innovation. With the lab's state-of-the-art testing facilities and deep understanding of marine and hydrokinetic technologies, partners can leverage expert insights and resources to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy solutions. Scroll through to see some of this work in-action.
Fostering Careers in Water Power
To continue nurturing the water power workforce, over the last year, NREL researchers established or expanded on programs and resources that are helping engage the next generation of researchers and educate them about careers in hydropower and marine energy. The popular Marine Energy Collegiate Competition and Hydropower Collegiate Competition saw 26 student teams compete in 2024, and 36 teams were selected to participate in next year's competition.
NREL Supports PacWave Energy Test Site
For more than a decade, NREL has been supporting PacWave—the first grid-connected wave energy test site in the United States. PacWave South is expected to open in the spring/summer of 2025. To facilitate accredited testing, NREL has deployed two Waverider buoys to characterize the test site as required by International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards. Additionally, test planning with CalWave—who will be the first accredited testing client at PacWave South in 2026—has begun. NREL has also initiated IEC Renewable Energy recognition under the IEC technical specification for marine energy mechanical loads.
Inviting Facilities To Join New Hydropower Testing Network
NREL collaborated with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) to support the development and launch of the new Hydropower Testing Network (HyTN). HyTN is a WPTO-funded voucher program that aims to connect hydropower technology developers with testing capability providers. In FY 2024, the team selected 18 test facilities—which offer more than 40 capabilities—to join the network and began accepting applications from hydropower developers seeking to receive testing assistance.
Partnering With NREL To Support Marine Energy Innovation
NREL partners with marine energy developers through its Testing Expertise and Access for Marine Energy Research (TEAMER) program. TEAMER has supported projects like the Ocean Renewable Power Company's Modular RivGen Power System and wave tank testing of the University of Washington's oscillating surge wave energy converter (WEC) device. Leveraging NREL's expertise, these projects benefited from high-performance computing capabilities and experimental testing facilities, enhancing their technologies' performance and commercial viability.
Simulating Ocean Conditions for Water Power
With NREL's large-amplitude motion platform, or LAMP researchers and technology developers can validate the performance of marine energy systems before subjecting their prototypes to open ocean trials, which can be time-consuming and costly. But researchers cannot test every single piece of a device with LAMP, so NREL's dynamometers help validate power take-off systems for wave and current energy devices over a range of sizes. As the nation's only laboratory accredited for marine energy standards compliant testing, NREL's testing capabilities range from lab to field, watt to megawatt, and component to system.
Leadership Message
"Hydropower and pumped storage hydropower add reliability, resiliency, and security to the U.S. grid. Along with marine energy, these technologies have the potential for significant additional contributions to the nation's evolving power sector. NREL's efforts are creating a foundation of knowledge and capabilities that are enabling the identification of impactful opportunities, empowering design and decision making, and supporting innovation and technology advancement.
Leveraging unique modeling, analysis, laboratory, and field research capabilities, NREL is putting the U.S. at the forefront of innovation globally, facilitating commercialization, and supporting the evolution of robust supply chains and the next-generation workforce. In this year's accomplishments report, you can read about some of our latest work in hydropower and marine energy, along with our fruitful partnerships with industry, academia, and beyond."
— Sincerely, NREL's Water Power Leadership Team
Research Highlights
Hydropower
NREL's hydropower tools, analysis, and partnerships highlight the unique potential of the oldest renewable energy source. Explore the highlights of our Fiscal Year 2024 achievements and discover how they're contributing to the advancement of energy resilience.
Emulation Platform Prepares for the Next Advancement in Hydropower Research
Researchers at NREL are bringing hydropower validation to a faster, more cost-effective, and controlled laboratory setting that replicates real-world environments with the Hydropower Emulation Platform. The Hydro Emulation project leverages NREL's ARIES platform to simulate hydropower in a controlled, realistic environment while utilizing actual operational and hydro performance data. Through the ARIES platform, hydropower assets can be connected to other physical and at-scale assets, such as megawatt (MW)-level battery storage, hydrogen electrolyzers, and other MW-level renewable assets like wind and solar generation, to mimic real-world grid-related operational scenarios, including fault conditions, integration challenges, variability in loads, and fluctuations in renewable generation. NREL is preparing for the next advancement of the Hydro Emulation project, with a 2.5-MW variable-speed hydropower emulation platform that is set for installation. With the installation of this 2.5-MW variable-speed emulation and generation platform, NREL will be better prepared to validate new hydropower technologies and advance the sector's understanding of hydropower's value to the grid.
Updated Cybersecurity Value-at-Risk Framework Delivers Multi-Facility Assessments and Improved Visualizations
This year, NREL released version 2.0 of the Cybersecurity Value-at-Risk Framework (CVF), a free, publicly available tool that helps hydropower power plant owners and operators assess their cybersecurity risks and make sound cybersecurity investment decisions. Informed by feedback from industry stakeholders, CVF 2.0 goes beyond its predecessor by allowing users to assess multiple facilities within an organization at the same time. In addition, CVF 2.0 features improved dashboards that allow users to better visualize the CVF's risk assessments, including an output called valuation guidance—a list of prioritized action items and recommendations that shows the potential impacts of cybersecurity risks in order to demonstrate the importance of minimizing those risks.
New Tool Could Advance Hydropower Plant Cybersecurity Through Artificial Intelligence
In 2024, NREL released the data-driven and hardware-agnostic Cybersecurity Situational Awareness Tool for Hydropower, or CYSAT-Hydro. Using state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, CYSAT-Hydro detects stealthy cyberattacks early, minimizes evolving cybersecurity risks, analyzes grid performance through technical and economic metrics, and aids grid operators in making informed decisions to enhance the resiliency and security of hydropower plants. Beyond providing the latest in cybersecurity protection, CYSAT-Hydro also computes technical and economic grid performance metrics for various distributed energy resources. In addition, the tool supports a user-friendly application programming interface that is compatible across operating systems. Leveraging the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) cyber range, the tool also features a real-time visualization dashboard that gives users a comprehensive view of grid operations, network traffic, and intrusions, among other data.
More Than 100 Hydropower Facilities Receive Support To Continue or Expand Power Production
Today, only about 97% of the country's multipurpose dams can generate energy. Many hydropower facilities are also over 50 years old; they need modern upgrades or repairs to continue generating the reliable, resilient, renewable energy our future grid needs. To help support these facilities and increase the nation's hydropower capacity, NREL researchers recently supported DOE in distributing incentive payments—funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—to more than 100 U.S. hydropower facilities. DOE selected 66 hydropower facilities to receive about $36 million in 2022 and chose another 46 facilities across 19 states to receive up to $71.5 million in 2023 to improve their efficiency. DOE also reviewed applications from facilities that plan to expand their power-generating capabilities. In a recent video on Energy.gov, several former awardees shared how critical these incentive payments are to securing hydropower's role in our renewable energy future.
Report Highlights Opportunities To Strengthen U.S. Hydropower and Supply Chain Gaps
NREL authored the Hydropower Supply Chain Gap Analysis in Fiscal Year 2024, which examines how to strengthen various sectors of the U.S. hydropower supply chain, from mining and extraction to installation and construction. The report identifies five critical gaps in the domestic supply chain and offers actionable recommendations for addressing these challenges. Together, these recommendations will assist DOE in planning for future rehabilitations and new construction projects while also guiding the development of policies, incentives, loan programs, and technology investments that can enhance and fortify the domestic supply chain.
Assessment Unlocks Potential in Hydropower Investment and Development
The Hydropower Investment and Public-Private Ecosystem Assessment, authored by NREL in Fiscal Year 2024, offers an in-depth analysis of the risks and opportunities for investing in small- to medium-sized hydropower and pumped storage hydropower projects across the United States. The study presents potential for reducing costs and enhancing grid reliability, while emphasizing potential for private sector investment. It also explores pathways to strengthen the investment ecosystem, fostering a more supportive environment for hydropower development.
New Pumped Storage Hydropower Can Provide Critical Energy Storage, and New Tools Can Help
Pumped storage hydropower (PSH) facilities rely on two reservoirs at different elevations to store and generate low-carbon energy. In addition to supporting energy resilience, PSH could also be the lowest-emitting storage option over its life cycle, according to a recent NREL analysis. And yet, up until now, few tools have existed to help developers plan new PSH projects. Luckily, NREL researchers have three tools that can help fill this knowledge gap: With the PSH Cost Estimation Tool, users can calculate the potential cost and performance for prospective PSH sites. This tool also integrates with the recently updated Supply Curves PSH Tool, which uses geospatial data to show site-level PSH resource potential and cost for the United States, including Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. The recent updates enable users to explore opportunities that link new reservoirs to preexisting ones, investigate using open-pit mines to build reservoirs, and identify policy incentives for development. Finally, the team developed the PSH Life Cycle Assessment Tool, where users can enter site-level PSH characteristics and calculate total potential greenhouse gas emissions across a project's life cycle.
NREL Unveils Tool To Assess Climate and Water Risks to the Future Power Grid
NREL researchers have introduced a groundbreaking modeling and analysis framework along with an open-source visualization tool to help evaluate how climate and water changes could impact the future power grid. This interactive tool can help grid planners and power plant operators address risks from shifting rainfall patterns, extreme temperatures, and flood hazards. It provides strategies to mitigate disruptions and enhance grid resilience against evolving climate conditions.
New Study Shows Potential for U.S. Floating Solar Energy
NREL researchers have assessed a surprisingly large estimate of how many floating solar panels that federally controlled reservoirs in the United States could host. For the first time, the team examined explicit criteria, like water depth and temperature, and found that these reservoirs could hold enough floating solar panels to generate about half of the solar energy the country needs to fully decarbonize by 2050 (between 861 and 1,042 gigawatts of energy). Although not all that potential space can be used, even just 10% could help the country achieve its energy goals. And this study makes it easier for developers to determine how and where to build new floating solar projects.
Marine Energy
NREL's marine energy testing and data acquisition capabilities showcase the exciting research happening at the lab. Explore the Fiscal Year 2024 Marine Energy highlights to discover how researchers are accelerating advancements in this renewable energy source.
Turbine Tool Now Simulates Even More Designs
An NREL team recently added new features to OpenFAST, a publicly available tool that can help marine energy researchers and developers study novel marine turbine designs. In OpenFAST, which simulates how turbines might function in a real-world ocean or riverine environment, users can evaluate designs without building and testing an actual device—and without incurring the associated costs, time commitments, and risks. With the newly added features, OpenFAST can now model an even wider variety of turbine geometries. The NREL team also hosted a workshop and created tutorial videos to demonstrate how to use the OpenFAST code and run a simulation.
Researchers Develop More Resilient Composite Materials
NREL researchers are advancing composite materials to make them more resilient for marine energy technologies and the ocean environment. In Fiscal Year 2024, researchers investigated these materials and, by extension, developed new validation capabilities at the lab, such as submerged fatigue testing fixtures, conditioning in ovens and incubators, a subcomponent-scale recirculating bath, a full-scale conditioning tank, and small- and large-scale submerged fatigue testing. The team also published findings on:
Polymer Additive Manufacturing for Marine Renewable Energy Applications
Effects of Coatings on Water Intrusion and Strain Gauge Durability
Submerged Fatigue Testing of Marine Energy Advanced Materials
Post-Deployment Characterization of Composite Tidal Turbine Blades
Alaska Could Meet Its Energy Resilience Goals With Help From Ocean Energy
Ocean energy, including wind, wave, and tidal energy, could help Alaska achieve its energy resilience goals, according to a December 2023 NREL report, Feasibility Study for Renewable Energy Technologies in Alaska Offshore Waters. The study also showed that offshore energy resources could help the state increase its coastal resilience and achieve greater energy security and independence. Alaska hosts some of the best tidal energy resources in the world and significant offshore wind and wave energy resources, as identified in the report. But more research can help identify financially viable combinations of onshore and offshore renewable energy resources (along with ancillary markets, such as clean hydrogen) to support the state's long-term energy plans.
Team Continues To Explore and Improve Metamaterial for Wave Energy
In a paper published in December 2023, a team of NREL researchers presented a method to understand, characterize, and optimize a novel kind of energy converter. Called a hexagonal distributed embedded energy converter, or hexDEEC, this centimeter-sized technology can generate electricity from any number of naturally occurring movements, such as ocean wave, harbor pier, and breakwater motion. With their new model, the team discovered specific methodologies and techniques that are critical to further explore and hone these devices. NREL's experts also partnered with researchers from the University of Florida to measure the energy production of another kind of distributed embedded energy converter—hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic actuators, or HASELs. Like hexDEECs, HASELs could be used to build devices that generate energy from ocean waves and more.
NREL Supports Resilient Energy Transitions in Remote Coastal Communities
Researchers at NREL and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory used findings from an NREL-published report to lay the groundwork for a marine-energy-focused Deployment Readiness Framework, which aims to better support energy transitions in remote coastal and island communities. In Fiscal Year 2024, the NREL team designed three modules for the framework: Marine Energy 101, Community Engagement Best Practices, and a Geospatial Tool. These will accompany one other module—Metrics of Readiness—developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. NREL and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will beta test the Metrics of Readiness module with the town of Galena, Alaska—recipient of a community-led current energy planning and development project funded by WPTO. Once the tool design is complete, the team will implement the framework with other communities that are receiving technical assistance.
Research Team Uses Motion Platform To Evaluate and Improve Wave Energy Prototype
In February 2024, a team of researchers from Sandia National Laboratories collaborated with NREL's researchers to test their wave energy prototype on NREL's LAMP. The team used LAMP to evaluate their prototype's power take-off system, which converts wave energy into usable electricity, in a low-risk laboratory environment. With data from these tests, the team can improve their device, scale it up, and deploy it to power instruments in the National Science Foundation Ocean Observatories Initiative Coastal Pioneer Array (in partnership with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution). The array collects data on ocean conditions to both support scientific research and help coastal communities prepare for natural disasters. And because wave energy can help fill energy gaps, the array's instruments can run continually.
NREL's Grid Integration Study Reveals the Potential of Tidal Energy in Alaska
NREL researchers have conducted comprehensive grid integration studies to evaluate the potential of three types of marine energy—tidal, ocean current, and wave—for local grids. The project's latest publication focuses on Alaska's Cook Inlet and reveals the substantial benefits that the burgeoning tidal energy industry could bring to the Railbelt grid. The study highlights that tidal energy has the potential to not only significantly decarbonize Alaska's largest grid but also enhance the state's economy. According to NREL's findings, the current Railbelt grid can accommodate up to 200 MW of tidal energy, with future upgrades to the Railbelt transmission system enabling a capacity of close to 300 MW. On an annual basis, 200 MW of tidal capacity could provide enough energy—810 gigawatt-hours (GWh)—to power almost all of Anchorage's 118,000 homes. With 300 MW, tidal energy could inject 890 GWh into the Railbelt grid, more than enough for all of Anchorage's homes.
NREL Deploys and Validates Wave-Powered Desalination System
This year, NREL researchers continued evaluating how membranes tolerate frequent and large variations in flow and pressure. Early results show that membranes can handle larger flow and pressure variations than originally anticipated, which is promising for future renewable-energy-powered desalination processes. These data suggest that there may even be opportunities to explore other intermittent applications, such as flex-RO, where reverse osmosis systems are used for grid stability.
Researchers also tested, validated, and deployed NREL's wave-powered desalination system, known as the hydraulic and electric reverse osmosis (HERO) WEC. In early Fiscal Year 2024, the team used LAMP to test and verify HERO WEC design upgrades. The team also deployed the upgraded prototype twice in North Carolina's Outer Banks—testing the hydraulic configuration in March and the electric configuration in April. During the six-day deployment in March, the HERO WEC produced nearly 350 gallons (or approximately 1,300 liters) of freshwater—enough to fill about 2,575 water bottles.
Popular Marine Energy Data Tool Gets New Upgrades
A team of experts from three national laboratories released new versions of the Marine and Hydrokinetic Toolkit (MHKiT), a software program on GitHub used to process and analyze marine energy data. With the latest MHKiT-Python release, v0.9.0, users can seamlessly work with common wave and atmospheric data files. The latest MHKiT-MATLAB release, v0.5.0, now allows users to model extreme wave conditions and analyze tidal and river flow data. With these new versions—which were developed by a team from NREL, Sandia National Laboratories, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory—MHKiT offers researchers and developers an up-to-date, free, open-source, and standardized platform to analyze marine energy data.
NREL Collaborates With C-Power To Deploy Custom Data Collection System
NREL experts collaborated with C-Power—a wave energy company—to design, build, validate, and deploy a custom data acquisition device for the company's recent sea trial. The device, known as a Modular Ocean Data Acquisition (MODAQ) system, successfully collected high-quality, reliable measurements on how well C-Power's wave energy prototype, called the SeaRAY autonomous offshore power system, performed out at sea. MODAQ's features also allow the team to receive near-real-time data, control the device, and monitor its health from afar. Data collected during this sea trial can help C-Power refine their prototype and support the entire marine energy industry in advancing wave energy devices.
New Tidal Energy Turbine Gets Closer to Deployment
NREL experts continued to develop a new tidal energy turbine test platform in New England's Piscataqua River in partnership with the University of New Hampshire, Sandia National Laboratories, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. This year, the NREL team designed and began assembling a new tidal energy turbine, including its power take-off system (which converts energy from tides into usable electricity) and other major components, to deploy in the river. NREL's researchers also continued to build (1) a data acquisition system that will be installed on the new turbine to track how it functions once deployed, (2) controls that can manipulate the device from afar, (3) systems to monitor the platform's safety and health, and (4) web-based methods for a broader team to access live data during device operation to help streamline future analysis.
NREL Enhances Award-Winning WEC-Sim Tool With Advanced Features
NREL's award-winning wave energy technology simulation tool gained new features in Fiscal Year 2024. The tool, called WEC-Sim, can mimic how almost any floating, ocean-bound device, like wave energy technologies, is likely to perform in various real-world ocean conditions. Recently, the WEC-Sim team successfully integrated a new layer—quadratic transfer functions—into the tool, which enables users to model forces that result when different wave frequencies in the wave spectrum interact with each other. With this new capability, WEC-Sim can now simulate how such forces might impact different mooring system designs or the amount of energy wave energy technologies could produce. The WEC-Sim team also added new functionality to accurately simulate complex power take-off systems—the components that transform raw wave power into usable electricity. These additions round out WEC-Sim's features; the robust simulation tool is now considered complete.
Cross-Technology
NREL is committed to making innovation and education accessible beyond the lab. Discover the initiatives that brought new voices to the table in our Fiscal Year 2024 achievements below.
NREL Expands Scope of Programs Designed To Bolster Water Power Workforce
Over the past year, NREL researchers have enhanced resources aimed at engaging the next generation of researchers and educating them about careers in hydropower and marine energy, supporting the growth of the water power workforce. Renewable Energy Discovery Island, which gives users insight into water power's potential to play a key role in the clean energy transition, now includes 14 waystations and an interactive web-based app, which features extensive resources and curriculum ideas that make it perfect for the classroom.
Earlier this year, NREL co-hosted and moderated a virtual Marine Energy Career Panel featuring real-world marine energy researchers who talked about the skills and interests that drew them to the field and what their day-to-day work looks like. In addition to the virtual career panel, NREL held an in-person career panel at the Pan American Marine Energy Conference. NREL also launched the quarterly SPLASH (Student-Professional Learning and Sharing Hub) newsletter; the spring 2024 issue covered all things STEM related.
Finally, NREL developed an important new resource for hydropower stakeholders, called the Knowledge Sharing and Succession Planning Toolkit. This toolkit outlines a five-step process that can be used by any hydropower organization to smooth out the transfer of knowledge between current workers retiring from the field and the many new workers entering the industry.
NREL Helps Water Power Technologies Office Clear Channels to Water Power Funding Through Prizes
NREL, in partnership with national labs and organizations, is fueling innovation through two exciting marine energy prizes. The Innovating Distributed Embedded Energy Prize (InDEEP), in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories, is now in its final stage, where competitors will test their groundbreaking distributed embedded energy converter technologies, or DEEC-Tec, for the grand prize in March 2025.
Meanwhile, the Powering the Blue Economy™: Power at Sea Prize is on the hunt for sustainable ocean energy breakthroughs. Managed by NREL with support from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration programs and the DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the CONCEPT Phase has attracted a record number of applicants, making it one of the fiercest competitions in marine energy. Competitors are eagerly anticipating the launch of the final phase in fall 2024, continuing through summer 2025.
Team Collects and Analyzes Plastic Debris in the United States
The Waterborne Plastics Assessment and Collection Technologies (WaterPACT) project recently collected samples of plastic debris from the Delaware, Mississippi, Los Angeles, and Columbia rivers. The project aims to renewably power technologies to detect, characterize, and collect plastic from U.S. waterways. After gathering field samples in 2023, the WaterPACT team—along with project partners—rigorously analyzed the recovered plastic samples to assess their size, shape, and chemistry as well as the chemicals present in associated contaminated water. This analysis represents a first-of-its-kind effort at this scale. The team also studied how riverborne microplastics degrade and leach over time and built models to evaluate the financial potential of using renewable-energy-powered sensors and collectors in U.S. waterways.
Publications
View a 2024 list of water power publications and a list of all NREL water power publications.
Who's Behind the Research?
Meet the staff powering NREL's water power research and development.
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Last Updated Jan. 27, 2025