Hydropower: Climate Solution and Conservation Challenge

Hydropower, the nation’s largest renewable electricity generation source and storage capacity, is both a significant climate solution and conservation challenge.  Stanford’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance and Woods Institute for the Environment are jointly leading a project focused on how to better use this major energy resource and, at the same time, reduce its environmental impacts. The work includes: a Stanford-led dialogue between the hydropower industry and the river conservation community; a law-school-based “policy lab” pursuing key research; a decision support tool launched under Stanford’s Big Earth Hackathon; and recent efforts facilitated by Stanford and the U.S. Department of Energy. Key issues that will be addressed in the seminar include the changing economics of hydropower, the safety and environmental impacts of U.S. powered and non-powered dams, and river basin-scale decision-making regarding U.S. dam retrofits and removals.

Speaker: Dan Reicher is a Research Fellow for the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University.