Fig. 2: Change in water availability cannot explain all trends in the annual capacity factor.
From: Hydropower capacity factors trending down in the United States
a gives the percentage of trend explained by water for each plant; plants with annual CF trends that are statistically significant at p < 0.05 are highlighted with a solid black outline. Each of b–m gives an example of actual and modeled generation at a plant. Together, these examples show the widely varying influence of water availability on the CF trend, from very strong (explaining all CF trends) to very weak (explaining no CF trends). In each panel, the time series and trends represented with broken lines are those determined with the CF modeled directly from water availability.
