Bull Shoals

Hydro power plant in Arkansas, United States of America. Approximate location 36.3635, -92.5763.

HydroArkansasUnited States of America

Bull Shoals is a 340 MW hydro power station in Arkansas, United States of America. It is operated by USCE-Little Rock District. Based on reported annual generation of 1,428 GWh, it can supply roughly 408,142 homes. It ranks #896 of 9,833 United States of America power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1957, it is around 69 years old — an older, legacy facility. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 5.3% of United States of America's electricity; the national grid averages 384 gCO₂/kWh (43.0% low-carbon) (2025).

340MW installed capacity
1,428GWh reported / yr
408,142homes powered
1957commissioned (~69 yrs)

Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id USA0000198.

Reported generation trend

2013: 480 GWh20132014: 514 GWh20142015: 1,098 GWh20152016: 876 GWh20162017: 849 GWh20172018: 623 GWh20182019: 1,428 GWh20191k GWh

Annual generation (GWh), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).

Owner

Operated by USCE-Little Rock District. All plants by this company →

Local climate & thermal context

This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 36.4°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.

14.5°Cannual mean temp
2,036heating degree-days (base 18°C)
782cooling degree-days (base 18°C)
214 melevation

Monthly mean temperature

J: 2 °CJF: 5 °CFM: 10 °CMA: 15 °CAM: 19 °CMJ: 23 °CJJ: 26 °CJA: 26 °CAS: 22 °CSO: 15 °CON: 9 °CND: 4 °CD26 °C

Heating degree-days here run 17% below the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.

Climate heat-demand index: 44/100 — this site sits in the mid third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.

In colder climates, uninsulated hot equipment (boilers, turbines, valves, steam lines) loses proportionally more heat to ambient air — exactly the loss Inzonex modular insulation is designed to cut.

Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.

How it compares & nearby plants

The #62 largest hydro power plant of 1449 in United States of America by capacity.

United States of America has 1449 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 101,657 MW of capacity.

Nearby power plants

Location

Coordinates 36.3635, -92.5763 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.

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