The Department of Energy spends 5.5 million dollars on 11 national laboratory projects meant to answer why it takes so long to relicense a hydropower dam

Why it takes so long to relicense a hydropower dam

A Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hydropower permit, once granted, lasts 30 to 50 years, and that long span is part of why it takes so long to relicense a hydropower dam. Getting or keeping one requires what the Department of Energy itself calls rigorous and expensive impact and evaluation studies. A National Hydropower Association analysis of over 5,000 licensing conditions spanning nearly 5 decades found that a hydropower facility now carries roughly 10 times as many mandatory conditions as its own earlier license did, most with no cost estimate attached.

On August 24, 2026, the Hydropower and Hydrokinetic Office at the Department of Energy awarded 5.5 million dollars aimed at cutting that cost and delay. The department own announcement funds 11 separate projects, not 11 separate national laboratories, a distinction its own release states plainly but a shorthand version of the news does not carry. Reading the full list of project descriptions shows only 7 distinct national laboratories actually do the work, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory alone leads or co leads 7 of the 11 projects.

For over 100 years, hydropower has been a pillar of American energy, supplying reliable, affordable power across the nation,

Nichole Fitzgerald, director, Department of Energy Hydropower and Hydrokinetic Office. Source 1.

What the 7 national laboratories are building

The work funded is mostly tools rather than new rules. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is building a fish passage risk screening method, Oak Ridge National Laboratory is building an artificial intelligence curated database of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filings, and Idaho National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory share a project building a common environmental impact framework for adding pumped storage to existing dams. 2 of the 11 projects test United States built modeling tools against Norway own hydropower system, 1 through the National Laboratory of the Rockies with a Norwegian university, the other through Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory with the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research. The funded work is due to finish in 1 to 3 years.

What is at stake if relicensing does not speed up

Matthew Allen, the National Hydropower Association senior director of legislative affairs, named what is at stake if the process does not speed up, about 16 gigawatts of United States hydropower capacity heading into relicensing over the next decade.

It's rare to see so many lawmakers from different parties and regions united on behalf of a common cause, but that's what makes hydropower so unique.

Matthew Allen, senior director of legislative affairs, National Hydropower Association. Source 2.

Hydropower remains a small but steady slice of the country power supply. Conventional hydroelectric generation totaled 146,250 thousand megawatt hours in the United States in the first half of 2026, a MAOWCE calculation from the Energy Information Administration own data shows, 6.7% of all utility scale generation and 23.6% of all renewable generation in that same period. Pumped storage hydropower, which pumps water uphill when power is cheap and releases it through turbines later to generate power again, still provides 88% of all utility scale energy storage in the country, and a National Laboratory of the Rockies study puts hydropower firm, guaranteed capacity, the amount it can reliably deliver at any time, at over 24 gigawatts, enough on its own to power 16 to 24 million homes.