The Energy Information Administration's Hydropower Explained tells, "Our Nation's first industrial use of hydropower to generate electricity occurred in 1880, when 16 brush-arc lamps were powered using a water turbine at the Wolverine Chair Factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan." The first U.S. hydroelectric plant was demonstrated on the Fox River near Appleton, Wisconsin on September 1882.
Renewable Energy Consumption and Electricity Preliminary Statistics shows that hydroelectric plants supply about 2.4 percent of the total U.S. energy consumption. Over half of the nation's hydroelectric power is generated in Washington, California, and Oregon. Most of the dams in the U.S. do not produce electricity - they were constructed for irrigation and flood control. China is the world's leader in hydroelectric production followed by Canada, Brazil, the United States, and Russia.
The U.S. Department of Energy under Secretary Steven Chu is making small investments to capture "low-hanging fruit". Hydropower Upgrades to Yield Added Generation at Average Costs Less than Cents per kWh - Without New Dams tells about a new modernization program for seven existing facilities. The plants are in Alabama, North Carolina, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arkansas.
In some of the plants, older turbines and transformers are being replaced with units having up to 23 percent better efficiency. Other facilities are installing additional turbines or equipment to reduce intake maintenance. The DOE tells that these upgrades will effectively replace 110,000 tons of carbon emissions per year. The incremental cost of the added generation is less than 4 cents per kWh on average. In 2007 the average residential electricity cost was 10.65 cents per kWh. (Unless you live in Hawaii, where it was 21.29 cents per kWh. Almost all of the state's power plants are powered by fuel oil.)
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