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Hydropower; U.S.; water; energy; water/energy nexus; historical; water law; water policy; water development; hydroelectric power
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The Long View Of The Water/Energy Nexus: Hydropower’S First Century In The U.S.A., Carl J. Bauer
The Long View Of The Water/Energy Nexus: Hydropower’S First Century In The U.S.A., Carl J. Bauer
Natural Resources Journal
This paper offers a historical overview of the first century of hydropower in the US from today’s perspective of the water/energy nexus. Hydropower emerged as a technology in the 1880s and its development expanded until large dam building ended in the US in the 1970s-1980s. I summarize the century from the two different angles of the water sector and the electric power sector, as the roles and strategic importance of hydropower changed dramatically in the two sectors, in the parallel histories of water development and electric power development. The paper emphasizes the electricity side of the hydropower story because the …