The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will provide an overview on the Hydropower Regulatory and Permitting Desktop (RAPID) Toolkit project as well as recent regulatory and technological updates, including newly released tools, data, and publications. Participants will be able to ask questions and provide input on how the hydropower community can best utilize the toolkit.
Navigating the complex system of federal and state regulations to secure project approvals can be one of the biggest hurdles hydropower developers face. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hydropower RAPID Toolkit offers a solution that makes permitting information easily accessible from one online location.
The Hydropower RAPID Toolkit:
* Features links to permit applications, processes, manuals, and related information
* Presents information on federal and state permits and regulatory approvals required for the development of hydropower projects
* Provides best practices to help navigate the regulatory process
* Helps potentially reduce the permitting timeline by facilitating communication among all project stakeholders—project developers, permitting agency personnel at all jurisdiction levels, and the public
* Helps potentially lower total project costs and investor risk by clarifying the permitting process, which encourages future hydropower development.
The Hydropower RAPID Toolkit is developed by a team of experts from DOE and its national laboratories, led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, with input from stakeholders that can benefit from access to a hydropower permitting roadmap and best-practice documentation.
These include:
* Hydropower permitting agencies including those within the Federal Inland Hydropower Working Group and appropriate state agencies
* Developers
* Manufacturers
* Consultants
This collaborative process encourages federal and state regulatory agencies as well as other industry stakeholders to review and coordinate the permitting process for both small and large conventional hydropower, run-of-river hydropower, in-conduit, and pumped storage projects.