American-Made Challenges

Like roots to a tree, geotechnical foundations provide structural support to a hydropower facility, and must be developed to ensure stability, safety, and performance for decades. While foundations are central to dam safety, challenges in their design and construction can lead to major project delays and cost overruns, potentially jeopardizing a project’s success.

Through the Groundbreaking Hydro Prize, WPTO is soliciting solutions that address key challenges faced in one or more of the three foundation development phases, namely:

• Geotechnical Site Assessment: Activities performed to obtain information needed to design and construct a hydropower foundation system
• Foundation Design: Process of using information from the site assessment to perform analyses and develop a cost-effective foundation system that meets the project design criteria
• Foundation Construction: Activities performed by the contractor, from mobilization through project commissioning, to fully develop the foundation system.

Targeting the most promising opportunity for future hydropower growth, the prize seeks solutions that are:

• Low head (less than 30 feet)
• New stream-reach development (NSD): Sites defined as stream segments without hydroelectric facilities or other hydraulic structures
• Applicable to soil foundations.

Please note that superstructures, including dams, are excluded from the prize scope.