New bill for more small hydro in United States

Small hydropower sector could soon experience real boom, especially after The U.S. House voted convincingly in favor of the bill proposed by U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton,which should make easier to produce hydropower from canals and ditches across the West.

The main purpose of this bill is to streamline the regulatory process for building smaller hydropower projects of 5 megawatts or less along 373 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation canals and ditches that are deemed suitable for such projects.

The good news for future developers of these projects is that the environmental review has already been done so the developers will not require to do another one. Outside developers would only have to install generators to harness the water's power.

Small hydropower projects are usually lot more environmentally friendly as compared to constructing large dams. In this sense, small hydropower is an environmentally friendly way to harness lot of the U.S. untapped hydropower potential.

Next stop is the hearing in the US Senate that is scheduled later this month. 

The state of Wyoming has the largest numbers of these waterways—121, further behind are Montana with 32 and Colorado with 28.