Hydropower Overview
Rivers, streams, and other flowing waters can be used to generate electricity through hydropower. Hydroelectric facilities represent the largest source of clean energy in the United States and around the world. A handful of massive hydro plants accounts for a significant percentage of this energy in Massachusetts.
What is hydropower and how does it work?
Modern hydro facilities incorporate turbines that spin when in contact with moving water, as well as generators that transform this rotational energy into electricity. These components are installed in or adjacent to dams and diversion structures that take advantage of gravity as water flows or cascades downward.
In Massachusetts, waterwheels have supplied mechanical power for centuries, and conventional turbine-based systems have generated electric power since late in the 19 th century. Today, numerous hydro facilities supply electricity to the New England grid or meet on-site power needs within the state. These installations range from large-scale plants producing hundreds of megawatts down to small-scale facilities creating anywhere from tens to hundreds of kilowatts.
Visit the Hydropower Technology section to learn more.
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The city of Kankakee, IL, completed
a conservation plan that includes this 1200 kWh hydroelectric plant, built to the strictest environmental standards. |
Why is hydropower considered clean, or renewable, energy?
Hydropower is a renewable resource because it uses the continuous flow of rivers and streams to produce electricity without using up the water resource. It is also a clean technology because it does not rely on the burning of fuels like oil, coal, or natural gas to produce power.
Where is hydropower used?
Hydropower is most often used as a commercial electric technology and occassionally can be used to power existing mill sites that are being renovated for commercial, industrial, or even residential use. Because most hydropower facilities are large in scale, it would be difficult to find and rehabilitate a site for a single residence.
Why should people use it?
Hydro plants generate cost-competitive electricity on a continuous, largely predictable basis, and the output of many facilities can be controlled to match changes in electricity demand and to provide energy storage capabilities. These are important advantages over intermittent renewables such as the wind and sun. Like all green sources, hydropower also diversifies the state’s electricity supply portfolio, increases energy security, reduces dependence on finite resources, and decreases emissions of harmful pollutants and greenhouses gases.
Despite these advantages, significant increases in the Commonwealth’s hydro generating capacity are very unlikely because dams and diversion structures alter natural watercourses and habitats. The adverse impacts of existing facilities can be reduced with state-of-the-art operational practices and fish protection measures, and many facilities that are underperforming or dormant can be upgraded or restored with efficient, modern, low-impact technology. Emerging “free flow” energy conversion systems represent a promising option for tapping hydroelectricity without disrupting aquatic environments.
To maintain the important role of hydropower in the state’s electricity supply portfolio, upgrading and restoration projects are under way at several sites in Massachusetts, and demonstrations of emerging technologies are planned.
Visit the Benefits and Barriers section to learn more.
How can I get involved?
The majority of hydropower capacity in the state has existed for at least several decades, and it is now very difficult to develop new hydropower resources. The most practical way to develop a hydropower project in Massachusetts is to rehabilitate an existing hydro site, though this also requires a significant approval process.
However, most electricity customers can support hydropower through the purchase of green electricity. Most green electricity suppliers rely in part on hydropower because it is the most prevalent clean energy technology today.
To learn more about ways you can get involved with hydropower, visit the What You Can Do section.