How Much It Costs According to a recent analysis by Navigant Consulting, Inc. that compared the levelized cost of power from a number of electricity sources, hydropower was the most affordable at $.02/kWh (kilowatt hour). Hydropower’s levelized cost – which accounts for an energy-generating system’s lifetime costs such as initial investment, operations, maintenance and cost of fuel – even beats that of coal-fired power plants according to the study.
How Much It Will Give You The hydropower industry currently accounts for approximately 200,000-300,000 jobs according to a study by Navigant Consulting Inc.i And according to the same study, with the right policies, the industry could add 1.4 million new cumulative direct, indirect and induced full time equivalents (FTE) jobs by 2025. The U.S. had 96,000 megawatts of conventional hydropower and pumped storage capacity as of 2009, according to the Department of Energy. With 1 MW enough to power 750-1,000 average American homes according to Electric Power Supply Association, that’s enough generating capacity to produce electricity for roughly 72 to 96 million homes.
Energy payback The ratio of total energy produced during a system’s normal lifespan, divided by the energy required to build, maintain and fuel it. A high ratio indicates good environmental performance. If a system has a payback ratio between 1 and 1.5, it consumes nearly as much energy as it generates, so it should never be developed. Hydropower clearly has the highest performance, with ratios exceeding 170, compared to ratios between 1.6 and 7 for fossil fuels. For projects assessed in Quebec, the performance is 205 for hydro with reservoir and 267 for run-of-river hydro (assuming a lifespan of 100 years).