Moving Forward With Hydropower Around the World

By Kris Polly

Many of our readers will know Emrgy for the innovative in-canal modular hydropower system it manufactures. This month, we feature another Emrgy venture: a first-of-its-kind floating solar project in the main canal of Oregon’s North Unit Irrigation District (NUID), supported by the Bureau of Reclamation. In our conversation with Emrgy Founder and CEO Emily Morris, NUID General Manager Josh Bailey, and Reclamation Project Manager TJ Kaup, we learn more about this effort to exploit the energy potential of a canal system—a project with lessons for water infrastructure managers across the West.

Next, we interview Heather Chalmers, the president and CEO of GE Vernova in Canada and the president of GE Vernova’s North American hydro business. GE Vernova was established this year as the spinoff of General Electric’s energy business and has 75,000 employees in 160 countries across the world, equipping it to play a major role in the energy transformation, including by building new pumped storage facilities and rehabilitating existing hydropower infrastructure.

Then, we speak with Ghislain Nicolas, the chief commercial officer of HYDROGRID, which provides an integrated water management and production planning platform designed to optimize hydropower plant operations. We learn more about HYDROGRID’s activity in Brazil and across the Americas.

Tim Gokie is the chief engineer of the Dam Safety Section at the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources. We speak with him about the task of regulating nearly 3,000 dams across the state.

GHD is a global, employee-owned professional services company that has been in the water business for nearly 100 years and provides services for dam owners across the project life cycle. In our interview with Helen Barbour‑Bourne, the company’s Australian national sector lead for hydropower, we learn more about GHD’s involvement in the first hydropower projects developed in Australia in nearly four decades, the Kidston and Snowy 2.0 projects.

Finally, with workforce development a top issue across the hydropower industry, we interview a young professional in the field: Jacob MacDonald, a structural engineer in Kiewit’s hydropower, dams, and hydraulic structures team. He tells us about his experience and his ideas about how to attract new talent to the industry.

Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the United States are just some of the countries where hydropower projects are moving forward to help transform our energy mix. I hope you enjoy reading our stories about how the leaders of this field are working to help build the future.

Kris Polly is the editor-in-chief of Hydro Leader magazine and the president and CEO of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations firm he began in February 2009 for the purpose of representing and guiding water, power, and agricultural entities in their dealings with Congress, the Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He may be contacted at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.