#Hydropower and #pumped hydropower #storage (PHS) report of the EU Science, Research and Innovation of the European Commission.
See the kick-off post here
https://lnkd.in/dpMZtRXj
and the full report here
https://lnkd.in/dHPUrr2p
In this post, the key messages of the last sections of chapter 3 are discussed, on sustainability in general.
✅ When developed and operated responsibly, hydropower directly supports the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 6, 7, 9 and 13. Hydropower projects can contribute towards economic development, social investments and environmental outcomes, supporting SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17. On the other hand, water reservoirs and dams/weirs in rivers can be responsible for ecosystem deterioration through diversion and alteration of flow and changes in habitat; barriers (for any purpose) obstruct the natural river flow with ecological, hydrological and morphological consequences.
✅ In the EU there are 4491 large dams (dam height >15 m OR dam height > 5 m AND design storage volume V>3 Mm3) according to the ICOLD 2023 register of dams and 33% are for multiple uses. According to ICOLD 2023, in the EU, 46% of single purpose reservoirs are for hydropower (which store 83% of the volume of single-purpose dams), 23% of multiple purpose reservoirs have hydropower as a first use (34% have water supply as first use), 6% of all reservoirs have hydropower as second use and 3.5% as third or fourth use. Overall, 48% of EU reservoirs are powered (International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD), ICOLD European Club (EURCOLD), ITCOLD).
✅ Hydropower is the best renewable energy for reducing pressure on mineral resources. The Extraction of Mineral Resources indicator is measured in kilograms of antimony equivalent (kgeq.Sb) per kilogram extracted to take into account existing reserves, the rate of extraction and the “depletion” of each mineral substance: the value for hydropower is 0.017, while it is 0.04 for coal, 0.3 for wind and 14 for solar PV. However, large hydropower projects requires large quantities of concrete that is responsible of carbon emissions and use of huge amount of sand (ETIP HYDROPOWER).
✅ The Hydropower Sustainability standard of Hydropower Sustainability Alliance is a very relevant tool to assess sustainability over a wide range of factors. In the EU, four projects (Austria, Croatia, France and Germany) have been assessed against this tool's requirements (João Costa, Alain Kilajian, Debbie Gray, International Hydropower Association (IHA)
✅ The hydropower sector in the EU takes also care of women and youth engagement! PEN@Hydropower, Barbara Fischer-Aupperle, Eduard Doujak.
