US National labs launch beta version of Hydropower Market Game

Argonne National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have been tinkering on a unique, hands-on project to support hydropower workforce development.

Now, the first playable version of the Hydropower Market Game is available to download.

Funded by the US Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), the game’s genesis is rooted in making an aging industry more accessible to a younger audience.

Argonne National Lab describes it as “a fun, online, open-sourced game with rising levels of complex challenges to learn about hydropower, how to operate hydropower plants, and how hydropower plays an important role in securing the power grid and providing renewable energy.”

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The Hydropower Market Game allows players to operate power plants, manage water resources, and respond to the needs of a dynamic grid in situations modeled after real-world operating conditions. It explains how specific hydropower technology operates and shows the inner guts of the machines that make the plant function.

The national labs have been seeking contributors to add to this still-under-development tool, as well as beta testers. You can help them out here.

This isn’t the first time the national labs have teamed up on a video game. The launch screen of the Hydropower Market Game includes a link to visit REDi, or Renewable Energy Discovery Island, a virtual, renewable-energy-powered world featuring more than a dozen water power waystations.

Aiming to engage tomorrow’s hydropower and marine energy innovators and inspire passion for carbon-free causes, the REDi Island web app was created by NREL in partnership with IKM 3D and with funding from the US Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and the WPTO.

Originally published by Paul Gerke on Factor This