Case studies of the legal and institutional obstacles and incentives to the development of small-scale hydroelectric power. Executive summary

• Main Authors: Schwartz, Larry, Wilson, William
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: 20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS; 29 ENERGY PLANNING; POLICY AND ECONOMY; COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN; HYDROELECTRIC POWER; FINANCIAL INCENTIVES; INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS; LEGAL ASPECTS; LOW-HEAD HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANTS; FEASIBILITY STUDIES; ENERGY SOURCE DEVELOPMENT; GEORGIA; MAINE; MICHIGAN; OREGON; PENNSYLVANIA; SITE SELECTION; WASHINGTON; WISCONSIN; CENTRAL REGION; ELECTRIC POWER; ENERGY SOURCES; GREAT LAKES REGION; HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANTS; NORTH AMERICA; NORTH ATLANTIC REGION; PACIFIC NORTHWEST REGION; POWER; POWER PLANTS; RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES; SOUTHEAST REGION; USA; Pacific; Low Head; High Falls; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5195121; https://www.osti.gov/biblio/5195121; https://doi.org/10.2172/5195121

This Executive Summary presents observations, conclusions, and recommendations developed from the completion of five (5) case studies of hydroelectric sites at High Falls, Georgia; Traverse City, Michigan; Swanville Lake, Maine; Cornell, Wisconsin; and Maxwell Locks, Pennsylvania. The work was accomplished by the Energy Law Institute of the Franklin Pierce Law Center, Concord, NH, for the National Conference of State Legislatures. The material contained here is, in part, a summary of the five separate reports on the legal and institutional barriers and incentives bearing on the development of each site. It is also a summary of the cumulative impressions of the actual general legal and institutional climate for small-scale hydroelectric development represented by the issues confronting each site. This document provides a general analysis and overview of the significant problems and opportunities for the development of hydroelectric facilities identified in the five full reports. A second Executive Summary is presented on the findings of two case studies of small-scale hydroelectric power at existing dams. The projects reviewed are: six sites in the irrigation system known as the Columbia Basin Project and two sites in the Bull Run watershed which supplies water to the City of Portland, Oregon. Key incentives and impediments are identified in these case studies conducted at the University of Washington.