The European hydropower industry is well renowned, able to build tailor-made hydropower facilities all around the globe and has vast experience in the sector. The European know-how can foster the transition into a more sustainable energy system in parts of the world that still need support to develop the sector. While the European hydropower potential does not allow huge developments, the international market development potential is still big. Currently, as noted in the last IHA 2020 Hydropower Status Report, the Covid-19 crisis has led to a widespread uncertainty in the sector. Financing and refinancing of some hydropower projects was put at risk because of liquidity shortages. The recent developments in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic give however reason to hope that the obstacles will be overcome in the near future.
New challenges for the European hydropower sector include the ability to capture the energy potential of water flows and sites with a very low height difference between the upper and lower water level (head) e.g. at irrigation dams, low head weirs and ship locks. New technologies could be installed on existing structures, constituting a big potential for future renewable and distributed, clean power generation. Business is not only made with the construction of new plants, but also with investments for maintenance and refurbishment of existing plants. Costs for other renewable energy sources keep on decreasing, however, hydropower is still leading in terms of cost-competitiveness. Despite high initial investment costs, plants have a very long lifetime (up to 80 years) and their operation and maintenance costs are relatively low. Thus, hydropower, providing sustainable and clean energy, has one of the lowest global generating costs.
The aspect of sustainable energy generation is of high importance for the citizens worldwide, as in the HYPOSO target countries, which are Bolivia, Cameroon, Colombia, Ecuador, and Uganda, and is also a main aim of HYPOSO and will be distributed by European hydropower experts in the target countries among relevant stakeholders to promote the renewable energy source. When speaking of hydropower, many additional services besides the generation of electricity are known, such as ecosystem services (a. o. low level of GHG, cleaning rivers from litter), water quality management (e. g. flood prevention, drought mitigation), renewable energy source and other power services (e. g. provision of storage and flexibility, predictable and controllable energy generation), local livelihoods (e. g. supply of drinking water, improved sanitation), and economic growth and regional development (e. g. tourism, aquaculture, irrigation purposes, improved infrastructure).
The overall objective of the HYPOSO project is to support the European hydropower industry with tools to best facilitate and consult the selected target regions in Africa and Latin America with their know-how and expertise and enable more technology export for European companies. The market uptake support shall lead to win-win situation and focus on sustainable and locally adapted solutions to stimulate the energy transition in developing and emerging countries.
