§2.Water power research and development
This section revises DOE water power research, development, and demonstration programs established by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (i.e., programs to advance hydropower—including conduit, pumped storage—and marine energy technologies from waves, tides, currents, salinity differentials, and ocean thermal gradients—to improve capacity, efficiency, and cost-competitiveness while minimizing environmental impacts). (As background, these programs support grants to eligible entities—such as institutions of higher education, National Laboratories, and industry—for technology advancement, testing, and deployment.)
Specifically, the section (1) reorders definitions in sec. 632 (42 U.S.C. 17211) for numerical sequence; (2) in water power technology activities (sec. 633), inserts "or efficiency" after "capacity" and adds advancing U.S.-based manufacturing of composite and additive manufactured marine energy components; (3) in hydropower activities (sec. 634), inserts "generation" after "efficiency," adds "cybersecurity" to physical security research, replaces streamlining language for hydropower licensing studies with collaboration on environmental data and best practices, revises environmental impact research to include assessment and adds hydrology, specifies components for hydropower and pumped storage, adds project management strategies and hydropower/pumped storage in grid modeling, and replaces and adds paragraphs on testing mechanisms, invasive species mitigation, and workforce development (including Tribal programs); (4) in marine energy activities (sec. 635(a)), adds "infrastructure, facilities, and equipment," replaces smart building systems with microgrids and smart energy management, establishes manufacturing and industrial base for supply chain, adds hydrogen and transportation fuels production, adds DoD/Navy collaborations for resilient coastal power and surveillance, specifies advanced manufacturing processes, expands power applications to data centers and subsea systems, revises resilience research for coastal/riverside communities and critical infrastructure to include desalination, disaster recovery, aquaculture, marine carbon dioxide removal, and microgrids, and adds development for arctic marine environments with extreme tidal, temperature, and icing conditions; and (5) in National Marine Energy Centers criteria (sec. 636(b)), adds consideration of access to regional test sites with unique natural advantages (e.g., high tidal ranges).