Hydropower in Europe is facing a great number of challenges. To tackle these environmental, societal, technological and market challenges, the hydropower sector needs to find novel approaches to future development in accordance with environmental and social demand. So where is hydropower, the world's largest renewable energy source heading in the foreseeable future? Predictions show that hydropower will hold the lead among other renewable energy sources as the world's largest source of renewable electricity generation. Climate change will play a decisive role in the development of hydropower energy due to its threat to the entire hydrological cycle. Moreover, the hydropower sector will have to show its worth, in dealing with continuous opposition from critics voicing concerns about the environmental and social damage caused by hydropower projects, as is also the case for other renewable energy sources (onshore and partly offshore wind, distribution/transmission grid projects).
The Research and Innovation Agenda (RIA) and the Strategic Industry Roadmap (SIR) are key contributions to the growing debate on the net zero economy and the European Green Deal under the challenge of a safe and independent energy supply. They will be highly relevant for discussions on finding the best solutions to provide the new energy system with flexibility. They will help European regulators, policymakers, civil society, NGOs, technology developers, planners, utilities and system operators to discuss together and to take balanced decisions on further hydropower development to enable the new energy system to benefit fully from the storage and flexibility potential of this valuable resource. Hydropower technology is established, widely deployed and highly efficient. Hydropower provides ancillary and important back-up services which help stabilise the grid for intermittent and non-dispatchable renewable resources such as wind or solar power. Hydropower is born to be a catalyst for the energy transition.
Hydropower has all the characteristics to be a catalyst for the energy transition with the challenge of safe and independent supply in Europe. The outcomes of the HYDROPOWER EUROPE Forum show the pathway to the vision for hydropower in Europe defined through wide consultation following four directions:
• Increasing hydropower production through the implementation of new environmental friendly, multipurpose hydropower schemes and by using hidden potential in existing infrastructures
• Increasing the flexibility of generation from existing hydropower plants by adaptation and optimization of infrastructure and equipment combined with innovative solutions for the mitigation of environmental impacts
• Increasing storage by the heightening of existing dams and the construction of new reservoirs, which have to ensure not only flexible energy supply, but which also support food and water supply and thus contribute to the WEF NEXUS and achievement of the SDGs of the United Nations
• Strengthening the contribution of flexibility from pumped-storage power plants by developing and building innovative arrangements in combination with existing water infrastructure.
This vision underlined by the Research and Innovation Agenda (RIA) and the Strategic Industry Roadmap (SIR), can also be an inspiring example for hydropower development worldwide which is of high importance to the hydropower sector in Europe which is already playing a major role in the worldwide market today.
