Abstract
Hydropower tailrace channels are unique and attractive locations for hydrokinetic energy harvesting due to fast currents, scheduled flow releases, proximity to existing structural and electrical infrastructures, and low risk of additional environmental impacts. However, energy-extracting devices create flow resistance, inducing a small but measurable water level increase which may diminish the available hydraulic head and reduce hydropower generation, defeating the initial value proposition. This study combines a one-dimensional momentum balance approach with the backwater equation for surface-varying open channel flow to analyze the water level increase and determine the optimal turbine siting distance that maximizes the net power production (balancing hydropower loss vs. hydrokinetic gain), as a function of the channel hydraulic conditions and the hydrokinetic turbine characteristics. Finally, using a subset of sites from the U.S. hydropower fleet, we provide a high-level estimation of the hydrokinetic potential available in tailraces in the United States and discuss two case studies. This work advocates for the adoption of hydrokinetic turbines downstream of dams as an opportunity to increase energy production at existing plants and Non-Powered Dams (NPDs) with minimal structural intervention, and, alternatively, as viable sites for large-scale field testing for hydrokinetic devices.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 121916 |
| Journal | Renewable Energy |
| Volume | 238 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2025 |
Funding
The authors would like to thank Dr. Carly Hansen for providing the data used to estimate the hydrokinetic potential at select hydropower dams across the United States, and to Kevin Stewart and Scott DeNeale for their insightful input and review of an early draft of the manuscript. The project was supported by the US Department of Energy's Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO). This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). The project was supported by the US Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) . This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE) . The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).
Keywords
- Analytical model
- Backwater effect
- Hydrokinetic energy
- Hydropower tailrace
- Optimal siting
- Power potential
