2018 Research Highlight in Manufacturing Analysis: Analysis of Supply Chains and Advanced Manufacturing of Small Hydropower Systems

Hydropower in the United States has been a reliable and critical renewable energy generation resource over the last 100 years, and as of 2016, approximately 101 GW of hydropower and pumped hydropower capacity were installed (DOE 2016). As such, strong manufacturing supply chains have been essential. The U.S. hydropower supply chain is distributed across the country with denser concentrations near manufacturing centers, such as the West Coast, Midwest, Great Lakes, and Northeast (Uria-Martinez, O'Connor, and Johnson 2015). The hydropower manufacturing hubs (such as the Northeast and the Great Lakes vicinity), which produce components for all sizes of hydropower generating equipment, can be seen in Figure 1. The major components for hydropower are the gates, valves, generators, penstocks, transformers, and turbines.