Within the REPowerEU plan of May 2022, the European Commission set up the Clean Energy Technology Observatory (CETO) to help addressing the complexity and multi-faced character of the transition to a climate-neutral society in Europe. The EU’s ambitious energy and climate policies create a necessity to tackle the related challenges in a comprehensive manner, recognizing the important role for advanced technologies and innovation. Hydropower is included in the CETO, and it is the topic of this document, that updates the 2023 release .
The energy crisis has highlighted the key role of hydropower in providing grid stability and dispatchable generation. Pumped-Storage Hydropower provides more than 90% of energy storage, and hydropower plants equipped with a reservoir can also provide water&energy storage and multi-purpose services. However, dams in freshwater and coastal water systems can cause environmental damages. As the European rivers are severely fragmented, this has led to impediment of fish migration; therefore, achieving the good status of surface waters requires for mitigation measures to also tackle the adverse impact of hydropower on aquatic environment. Sustainable hydropower needs to achieve a good balance between electricity generation and electricity grid services, impacts on ecosystems and benefits for society, supporting the achievement of the Green Deal targets and the objectives of renewable energy and water/environmental policies.
This report highlights that several sustainable hydropower options exist in the European Union, such as: modernization of the existing hydropower fleet, hydropower integration and hybridization with other energy technologies (floating photovoltaics, heat extraction from generators, batteries), exploiting hidden hydropower in water and wastewater distribution networks, hydropower in existing and non-removable barriers (e.g. water mills) and hydrokinetic turbines. New water&energy storage sustainable solutions are also possible, e.g. new pumped-storage hydropower systems created by interconnecting reservoirs or exploiting abandoned open-pit mines. Digitalisation is also emerging as a relevant strategy to mitigate impacts along rivers and to optimize hydropower generation taking into account weather, technical, market and environmental factors. Multi-purpose reservoirs are a potential solution to grapple with climate changes, increased water demand and ensure flexible energy and storage, but they come also with costs and challenges.
The report shows that the European hydropower sector plays a leading role at the global scale, holding the largest share of export and high-value inventions. The EU is very active in scientific publications, and China is the main competitor. Therefore, hydropower is a key sector to strengthen the competitiveness of the EU in an increasingly challenging world (e.g. energy crisis, climate changes, green and digital transition and the competitiveness of emerging economies). The report also tracks the trend of investments, the main EU funded research projects, and critically discusses some socio-economic and sustainability indicators, comparing them with those of the other clean energy technologies. The challenges, especially the environmental and policy ones, are also discussed in order to stimulate future researches and discussions, and to shade more light on the current state of the art of the technology.
QUARANTA Emanuele;
GEORGAKAKI Aliki;
LETOUT Simon;
MOUNTRAKI Aikaterini;
INCE Ela;
GEA BERMUDEZ Juan;
2024-11-13
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC139225
978-92-68-20966-0 (online),
1831-9424 (online),
EUR 40067,
OP KJ-01-24-070-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC139225,
10.2760/8354439 (online),
