A concept floated by Republican Mike Simpson, a U.S. congressman from Idaho, holds the potential to loosen the intractable logjam that has persisted for years among lawmakers, community members and federal officials to find a way to save the dwindling salmon population in the Columbia River Basin before it is too late.
The contractor will construct a 134-m-high RCC dam and four saddle dams, with a combined capacity to impound approximately 34 billion cubic meters of water.
A newly installed $376,000 hydropower turbine in a south Seattle water main aims to generate roughly 70 percent of the annual energy consumed by the district's administrative facilities.
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity, a mature technology first developed in the 1890s, is playing an increasingly important role in the current era as wind and solar power advance. ENR takes a look at some of the largest pumped-storage facilities in the world.