WSHPDR_2013_Final_Report-updated_version

2.4 Northern America
Lara Esser, International Center on Small Hydro Power
Introduction to the region
North America comprises five countries and territories:
Bermuda, Canada, Greenland, Saint Pierre and
Miquelon and the United States of America (USA).
Canada, Greenland and the USA contain exceptionally
large areas with varying climate. Greenland has an
exceedingly large ice-covered area (1,755,637 km 2 ),
whereas the Canadian territory has mild temperate to
subarctic and arctic areas. The climate in the USA is
mostly temperate. A tropical climate is present in
Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semi-arid in the
Great Plains west of the Mississippi River, and arid in
the Great Basin in the southwest. The USA and Canada
trade electricity between each other. Canadian
provinces export, on average, 40 TWh of electricity to
the northern states of USA every year. Most of that
electricity is hydropower. The current power strategy
of these northern states i.e. New England, New York,
Midwestern states and Pacific Northwest is to
purchase electricity rather than to build new plants.
Canada also benefits from this inter-State energy trade,
since north-south trade distances between provinces
and states are shorter than if electricity was to be
transmitted from east to west and vice versa within
Canada. During periods of peak demand, Canada also
imports electricity from the USA. 1
Table 1
Overview of countries in Northern America
Country
Total
population
(million)
Rural
population
(%)
Electrification
access
(%)
Electrical
capacity
(MW)
Electricity
generation
(GWh/year)
Hydropower
capacity
(MW)
Hydropower
generation
(GWh/year)
Canada bcd 33.70 19 100 130 543 588 016 75 077 348 100
Greenland ad 0.05 16 -- 140 468 69 281
USA de 311.50 18 100 1 040 000 4 120 000 78 200 257 000
Total 345.25 - - 1 170 683 4 708 484 153 346 605 381
Sources:
a. Greenland Development Inc. 2
b. Natural Resources Canada 3
c. Statistics Canada 4
d. International Journal on Hydropower and Dams 5
e. U.S. Energy Information Administration 6
Notes: Greenland has no main grid.
Small hydropower definition
In Canada, units of a capacity that are up to 30 MW
are considered small hydropower plants; in the USA
the threshold of small hydropower is 50 MW.
Greenland does not have a definition yet (table 2).
Table 2
Classification of small hydropower in Northern
America
(Megawatts)
Country
Small hydropower
Canada up to 50
Greenland ..
United States up to 30
Regional overview
Canada, the USA and Greenland all use small
hydropower, though Greenland has only recently
started using hydropower (1993). In 2012, the country
has only one small hydropower plant at Tasiilaq (with
an installed capacity of 1.2 MW). 2
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has two
programmes that support hydropower which include
small hydropower. The Wind and Water Power
Program by the DOE focuses on increasing generating
capacity and efficiency at existing hydropower
facilities as well as adding hydropower generating
capacity to existing non-powered dams. i The
programme also focuses on adding new low-impact
hydropower, increasing advanced pumped-storage
hydropower capacity and reducing potential
environmental impacts of conventional hydropower
production. 7 The Wind and Water Program funds the
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to develop
market-ready and fish-friendly hydropower turbines. 7
The DOE also supports the National Hydropower Asset
Assessment Program (NHAAP), which is an integrated
water-infrastructure information platform for
sustainable hydroelectricity generation and
management. The NHAAP includes a cross-referenced
geospatial database that can be maintained, updated
and integrated with other generation resource
assessments on a regular basis to support
water-energy research and policy planning. The
database can be used to study regional patterns in
generation variability, their causes, plus opportunities
for upgrading hydropower facilities to stabilize and
increase generation in the United States. 8 9
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