Hydropower Keeps Your Lights On

About 80% of the electricity you use comes from hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest. These dams have the capacity to generate 33,000 megawatts of clean, renewable, and affordable energy to the region.

Hydropower Is Clean

Because hydroelectricity has no carbon emissions, the region’s carbon footprint is half that of other regions in the country. Hydropower also provides backup to wind resources when the wind doesn’t blow.

Hydropower Is Renewable

The water that turns the turbines in a hydroelectric plant is continually replenished through rain and snow melt.

Hydropower Is Affordable

The Northwest has some of the lowest power rates in the country because of hydropower. It’s much cheaper than many conventional and renewable generation resources, such as wind, solar, nuclear, coal, woody biomass or natural gas-fired plants.

Hydropower Is Flexible

Generation at a hydroelectric plant can be ramped up and down quickly. This flexibility makes it a good partner for variable sources of generation, like wind.

Hydropower Supports Fish and Wildlife

Investments in dam improvements have boosted survival of young fish moving downstream to the ocean to 95% and higher at the federal dams. Customers are spending up to $1 billion a year through their electric rates on fish and wildlife projects.

Hydropower Benefits the Economy

Dams control flooding, provide irrigation for farmland, add millions of dollars to the economy through navigation and commercial transportation, and createrecreational opportunities for residents and tourists. River navigation is
the cleanest, most fuel-efficient mode of commodity transportation.