Thursday March 28, 2024
The Hill —
Hydropower generation in the U.S. West plunged to a 22-year low last year — dropping 11 percent from the year before, according to a new federal data analysis.
The total amount produced in the region amounted to 141.5 million megawatt-hours, or about 60 percent of the country’s total hydroelectricity output in the 2022-23 “water year,” per the data published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The U.S. West water year, which generally follows how water accumulates and moves through a watershed, runs annually from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30 of the next calendar year.
The states responsible for the region’s hydroelectricity generation include Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, California, Oregon and Washington. The latter two states contain 37 percent of the nation’s hydropower capacity, according to the EIA.