Abstract
We present a theoretical resource assessment of riverine hydrokinetic energy for the United States using the latest National Water Model version 3.0 (NWMv3.0) and the National Hydrography Dataset Plus version 2.1 (NHDPlusV2.1). These data sources enable a higher resolution and more comprehensive assessment than the previous one by EPRI in 2012. Using NWMv3.0, which contains retrospective datasets with all hydrologic units (HUs) in the US, we cover all HUs in the contiguous United States (CONUS) and two HUs (Hawaii and Puerto Rico) outside the CONUS (oCONUS), providing a detailed spatiotemporal analysis of hydrokinetic energy resources. We observe a 25% increase in the total theoretical hydrokinetic energy potential compared to the previous study in 2012 by EPRI. We also quantify inter-annual and seasonal variability to present the temporal stability of hydrokinetic energy by analyzing hourly (15-minute for Hawaii) flowrate data. These results offer valuable insights for energy planners, project developers, and researchers, supporting more stable and efficient energy supply planning. In future research, we will address data limitations, particularly for Alaska, to further refine hydrokinetic energy potential estimates.