Environment

Department of Energy awards $2.3M to accelerate hydropower in Keokuk

Tri States Public Radio | By Jane Carlson

Published September 6, 2023 at 11:10 AM CDT

Fewer than 3% of the nation’s 90,000 dams currently produce power, but have the potential to add thousands of megawatts of clean energy to the grid.

The U.S. Department of Energy will invest $2,306,949 in a Keokuk project that is advancing hydropower as a source of clean energy.

It is one of seven such awards nationwide totaling $13 million announced today by the Biden-Harris Administration to accelerate technologies to generate power at dams that currently do not.

Fewer than 3% of the nation’s 90,000 dams currently produce power, but have the potential to add thousands of megawatts of clean energy to the grid, according to the Department of Energy.

In Keokuk, the California-based Electric Power Research Institute will test two models of the Amjet Turbine System, which is designed to add power-generating infrastructure to non-powered dams.

The work will be performed at the Keokuk Energy Center, which is a run-of-river hydroelectric generation plant.

The funding comes from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and is meant to advance hydropower research and development technologies for non-powered dams – and to help achieve the administration’s climate goals.

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