There are a lot of nuances to hydropower. As the world looks for cleaner and more sustainable energy solutions, our abundance of hydropower has gained considerable attention and interest. Whether you’re new to the subject, need a quick refresh, or are exploring these facts before taking a deep dive, our hydropower fast facts are a great resource. Please spend some time here and explore some key facts about hydro, including how it works, what it provides, and its impact on clean energy, the environment, and our local economy.
- Northwest hydropower produces no carbon emissions, thereby significantly reducing the total carbon footprint of the region’s energy production.
- As a result of our climate and the use of run-of-the-river dams, the hydro system on the Columbia and Snake does not produce measurable amounts of methane gas.
- The federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers are operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation. Bonneville Power Administration markets the power produced by the dams to Northwest utilities and beyond.
- There are many privately owned dams in addition to the federal hydroelectric dams. They are operated by private and customer-owned utilities. These facilities vary widely from those we primarily advocate on behalf of.
- The Columbia River is the largest in the Pacific Northwest, and its largest tributary is the Snake River. Combined, they stretch across the United States and Canada, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.
- Hydroelectric dams offer billions of dollars in economic opportunity for the Northwest.
- The low cost of hydropower is crucial for lower-income families and individuals.
- Hydropower helps meet our carbon-free energy goals by producing thousands of Megawatts in several ways, from generation and storage to transportation via our rivers.
- Hydropower generates half of our energy each year and the majority of our carbon-free energy.
- Solar and wind are growing but they require backup because their output fluctuates minute-to-minute. Hydroelectric dams help balance the fluctuations of solar and wind by acting as a giant clean battery, using the water behind them as stored energy. Hydropower Essentials page.
- The pairing of hydro with solar and wind has allowed us to add more renewables in our region in a low-cost, carbon-free way.
- Electric vehicle owners benefit greatly from carbon-free, low-cost hydro by reducing the carbon footprint and price tag associated with every charge.
- Some have said hydroelectricity is the first form of solar power. Sunlight evaporates water in the ocean which produces the weather that provides rain and snow. That runoff fills our rivers as gravity draws it back towards the ocean. Hydroelectric turbines use the kinetic energy of that moving water to spin them, generating massive amounts of clean, renewable power.
- New fish protections have been put into place at all 8 Lower Columbia and Lower Snake River dams. Examples of protections include fish bypass systems that keep fish from entering the turbines, and cooling systems for fish ladders.
- Major upgrades to the lower Columbia and Snake River dams have led to a survival rate past each dam of 93 to 99%, depending on the fish species. 2009 Map of the Columbia River Basin (PDF).
- Through the Columbia Basin Fish Accords, which provide approximately $100 million a year to Northwest states and tribal nations. Nearly 1 million acres of habitat have been protected, treated, or maintained, with more projects always underway.
- Some of the largest tech and manufacturing companies in the world have located facilities in the Northwest due to the availability of carbon-free, low-cost power from hydroelectricity.
- Irrigation from dam reservoirs allows for millions of acres of rich farmland that provides thousands of jobs to seasonal workers and an important economic base for rural communities.
- Barging and riverboat tourism, enabled by the dams, support the least carbon-intensive means of transporting goods and providing people of all ages a great way to experience the river.
- Each year, as much as 31.2 billion or more in goods are transported using the Columbia-Snake River system as a water highway. BPA Snake Dams Fact Sheet 2016 (PDF).
Frequently Asked Questions
In short, everyone! Hydropower in the Northwest is generated by federally owned and operated dams, and distributed by the Bonneville Power Administration to publicly owned, not-for-profit utilities that serve millions of Northwest customers. Many utilities serving communities across the region also have ownership of hydropower facilities as well.
In total, about half of all energy capacity in the Northwest is hydropower. That means, if you live in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Western Montana, or even beyond, every battery charged, and switch flipped is powered by our dams.
Hydropower continues to meet the needs of millions of people who rely on its affordable, reliable, carbon-free electricity. Today, it remains one of the most significant and effective sources of renewable energy in the Northwest. Our dams have benefited from upgrades to the turbines, improved fish passage, and infrastructure upgrades to generation and navigation equipment.
In addition to upgrading existing structures, the cutting edge of hydropower today is in small hydropower projects, adding generation to currently non-powered dams and building pumped storage hydropower facilities with battery-like capability. Our past, present, and future are intertwined with power generated from water.
For decades, hydropower has been the region’s main source of affordable, reliable, carbon-free electricity. Electricity demand is dramatically growing from data centers, manufacturing, and electrifying vehicles, buildings, and other parts of our everyday lives. Meeting major increases in electric usage while complying with aggressive clean energy mandates will require all of our existing hydropower and significant increases in new generating resources.
Hydropower also provides firm generation–meaning it can provide energy on demand. When combined with its storage capabilities, our dams can provide ideal support for intermittent renewables like wind and solar, similar to how a battery functions. You can learn more about this process on our “Hydropower Essentials” page.
This clean energy future must also ensure it leaves nobody behind and keeping the price of electricity affordable is essential to that. The Northwest enjoys some of the lowest rates in the nation thanks to our hydropower.
Grid reliability is a balancing act. A perfect harmony must be kept between the amount of energy we generate and the amount we consume at all times. If there’s too much energy on the grid or not enough, energy infrastructure begins to fail, and blackouts can occur. To keep that balance, we need resources that can keep up with our energy needs.
Hydropower has led the way in reliably performing that balancing act in our region for decades. We’ve also seen with recent heat waves and cold snaps that when energy demand is far higher than normal, hydropower can ramp up to help meet that need, too. These extreme weather events have brought the Northwest dangerously close to blackouts, but each time hydropower has helped keep the lights on when we needed it.
Hydropower plays a crucial role in keeping energy rates affordable in the Northwest. Thanks to a steady supply of precipitation in our region, we have an excellent source of reliable energy from our dams. Additionally, these facilities were established decades ago and are cost-effective to maintain and upgrade when compared to building new resources. This is especially important as many states and communities in the Northwest work to meet clean energy mandates and aggressive decarbonization goals.
This lower-cost energy is supplied in large part by federal agencies to not-for-profit, community-owned utilities that prioritize maintaining the most affordable, cost-based rates for their customers. Hydropower is the main reason that millions of Northwest electricity customers enjoy the lowest rates in the nation.
Hydropower offers a multitude of benefits that are essential to our everyday lives. Primarily, it is touted for providing affordable, reliable, carbon-free energy. In the Northwest, around half of our energy capacity comes from dams.
Hydropower’s reliable affordable electricity has also helped grow our economy and create jobs in our local communities. Likewise, dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers allow for marine navigation–creating a river highway. Barging is cost-effective and lower in emissions than truck or rail — farms as far as the Midwest utilize this shipping method to sell these vital crops across the world. This results in billions of dollars of economic activity, and many farms receive irrigation water from the same river that carries the food they produce.
Our dams also help control floods, protecting communities throughout the river basin from deadly disasters. And, on a lighter note, the reservoirs provide excellent recreational opportunities–from kitesurfing to cruises. There’s lots to love when it comes to our hydro system!
While we love hydropower for its many benefits, there are some drawbacks as there are with all forms of energy generation. The construction of dams can disrupt ecosystems, impact fish migration, and change habitats in ways that impact native plants and wildlife. Additionally, in the Northwest, the construction of dams has impacted Native American Tribes and culturally significant sites along the river.
Understanding these drawbacks is a critical responsibility of dam owners and operators. Together, utility customers in partnership with federal, state, and tribal agencies have invested billions of dollars to mitigate hydropower’s impacts. Those investments have helped increase salmon returns and improve habitat around the region. These efforts are core to the mission of Northwest RiverPartners and our members.
Ecosystem in the surrounding area. Scientific data demonstrates that hydropower and salmon continue to successfully co-exist in many of our rivers. Further, carbon-free hydroelectric energy has offset countless tons of air emissions and continues to be a climate change solution.
Today, fish ladders allow for upstream passage for spawning adults at many hydropower facilities. To help juvenile salmon make their way out to the ocean, dams incorporate bypass systems, giant slides called spillway weirs, and new fish-friendly turbines. Dam operators work with fish and wildlife officials to implement predation management and different hydropower operations to give salmon the best odds of survival. These measures have helped support increasing returns.
The responsibility of providing mitigation efforts for salmon is taken seriously, and these efforts are helping recovery efforts for salmon populations that are exposed to a variety of threats. Those threats extend far beyond our rivers, as climate change and human activities have led to worsened ocean conditions.
Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration–or NOAA, for short–have found that sea surface temperature rise has a major negative impact on salmon mortality. In this way, the clean energy produced by hydropower and its support for intermittent renewables like wind and solar can actually benefit salmon by helping fight climate change.
Your journey to supporting hydropower can start right here! When you sign up for our newsletter, we’ll keep you updated on the latest developments on your hydro system and share opportunities to participate in important public processes that influence policy outcomes. Your support is the most valuable resource we have in preserving our access to clean, affordable, reliable energy in the Northwest.
Just head to the top menu here on our site and click or tap “Take Action” to get signed up.
We also strongly encourage you to engage with your local utility provider, many of whom are Northwest RiverPartners members, and receive their energy from hydropower.