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Make a ContributionToday you will learn from expert guest Malcolm Woolf about hydropower, why it may or may not help solve climate change, how it works and what needs to still be done for it to be an effective solution to climate change.
Malcolm Woolf is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Hydropower Association.
Woolf comes to NHA after decades of experience in the energy and environment field. He was a Senior Vice President with Advanced Energy Economy and has extensive markets experience. He served in a cabinet level position for Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley where he worked to promote affordable, reliable, clean energy, and he also led energy policy for the National Governors Association.
Woolf has experience in both the executive branch and Capitol Hill having served at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and as a Congressional committee staff member.
Woolf earned his law degree, as well as a Masters of Public Administration and Public Policy, from the University of Virginia. He holds a B.A. magna cum laude from Tufts University, with a year at Pembroke College, Oxford University.
Malcolm is the supporting NHA staff member for the CEO Council.
Follow Malcolm Woolf:
The Department of Energy has called hydropower the nation's 1st renewable energy resource. It's was established in the late 1800s, essentially generating electricity by having water push a turbine as the water goes through the hydropower facility, and spinning the turbine is what creates the electricity.
Currently there is 100 gigawatts of carbon free, flexible power generation capacity in the US.
That is about 40 percent of the nation's renewable power. or 30 million American homes and families, homes and businesses every day. Furthermore it is a reliable source of energy when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not out.
Let's address a common concern: methane production from hydropower.
Consumers absolutely benefit from the low energy prices.
The other groups that benefit are the environmental and climate communities to the extent that we are able to partner and focus on climate free generation where it makes sense and focus on dam removal where it doesn't.
There was absolutely, hydropower facilities built in areas 100 years ago, maybe even 75 years ago, where they probably shouldn't have been built. And so that is a big area where hydropower can do harm, which is in part probably why we're not building new reservoirs today.
Pump storage: pump water from two reservoirs when needed in a closed loop off river. Let us use our solar when we've got the production and it's sunset. When solar is no longer producing, but people are still using their electronics release the power. So that's part of the flexibility of of pump storage and hydropower is we can adjust as the grid evolves and if we do it off river closed loop, there really isn't much of a downside.
Taking a 3 R approach:
One challenge is the flexibility of hydropower is able to keep lights on, but that flexibility, you get paid for producing a kilowatt of power, but you don't get paid for producing it when the grid needed it. You don't get that surcharge for that flexibility.
Another challenge is there is a wave of hydropower facilities that are up for relicensing. Often, since these are on water bodies, there's multiple states involved because they share the river. So there can be dozens of different agencies that have to give permits and the average license takes 8 years for relicensing an existing facility. It often takes over a decade, and some have taken over 15 years or longer. So we've got to improve the licensing process and working together with tribal groups and with river groups.
Our guest recommends learning the following skills:
Activity: Hydropower Project Evaluation
Description: Choose a major hydropower project from your region or globally. Research its planning, environmental impact assessments, and controversies. Create a presentation summarizing its benefits and challenges.
Demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson by applying it to the above activity. If, and only if, you have a full understanding and have mastered the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson, select the next lesson in the navigation.
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