The Role of Hydropower in a Decarbonized Power System
Abstract: Hydropower has provided a clean, reliable source of energy in power systems around the world for over a century, but energy transitions can create new value for hydropower as an enabler of other renewable resources such as wind and solar. Hydropower, including pumped storage, can provide flexible generation to balance the variability of wind and solar, as well as long-duration energy storage and other important services to ensure grid reliability. This talk will describe emerging challenges and opportunities for hydropower, and how research in the US Department of Energy’s HydroWIRES Initiative is working to address them.
Biography: Dr. Samuel (Sam) Bockenhauer leads the HydroWIRES Initiative in the US Department of Energy (DOE)’s Water Power Technologies Office. As the office’s $15M grid integration program, HydroWIRES (https://energy.gov/hydrowires) focuses on understanding the value hydropower can provide to the power system, how best to operate hydropower in a flexible way to integrate variable renewables such as wind and solar, and what technology innovations are needed to enable more flexible operation. He also leads the office’s international work on hydropower, serving as Chair of the IEA Hydropower Technology Collaboration Programme and leading the US-Norway MOU on hydropower R&D. Sam was previously a Physical Scientist in DOE's Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis, where he managed a portfolio of policy analysis and international collaborations on the energy-water nexus. Prior to DOE, Sam worked as a Congressional Science Fellow in the U.S. Senate, handling energy, environment, and agriculture policy. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics from Stanford University in 2013, and his B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison