Renewable Power Generation for Water Transmission

Project ID: 8343
Principal Investigator: Mitchell Haws
Research Topic: Improved Power Generation
Priority Area Assignments: 2012 (Climate Adaptation), 2013 (Climate Adaptation), 2014 (Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation)
Funded Fiscal Years: 2012 and 2014
Keywords: solar energy, photovoltaic, concentrated solar power, navajo generation station, renewable energy

Research Question

Are there opportunities to use Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) project lands and rights-of-way for the installation of solar technologies?

Can we better use project lands and improve power generation capabilities for water transmission?

Can strategically located solar technology be placed on the canal system right-of-way or cover the canals?

Need and Benefit

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Park Service (NPS) have been looking at the amount of carbon emission coming from the Navajo Power Generation Station (NGS) in Arizona. Because of the visible emissions coming from NGS, the NPS, along with the EPA and private environmental groups, would like NGS to install approximately $1 billion of emission scrubbers or even shut down. If these organizations are successful at requiring the additional standards or reducing power generation coming from NGS, there will be a significant economic impact to Reclamation, along with many of Reclamation's partners. Thus, in order to thwart these concerns, Reclamation should examine all of the alternatives for power replacement supplies. The current administration has placed a high importance on renewable power supplies; therefore, it only seems prudent for Reclamation to continue this research.

This research will:

* Produce clean energy alternatives for powering pumping stations

* Provide potential replacement power for losses at NGS

* Provide renewable energy credit

* Develop a baseline for future estimation and identification of challenges that need to be overcome for large-scale projects

* Contribute on a multilevel scale to the green initiative

* Fulfill future system power requirements

* Provide additional power for the future

Contributing Partners

Contact the Principal Investigator for information about partners.

Research Products

Bureau of Reclamation Review

The following documents were reviewed by experts in fields relating to this project's study and findings. The results were determined to be achieved using valid means.

Renewable Energy Assessment for Reclamation (final, PDF, 465KB)
By Mitchell Haws
Publication completed on September 30, 2014

This bulletin summarizes the research results and potential application to Reclamation's mission.

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Last Updated: 6/22/20