Is Europe’s hydropower potential tapped out?

Huge dam projects built in Sweden, Austria and France decades ago might not be feasible today, but pumped storage hydropower at sites with existing infrastructure could have major potential to reduce the EU’s emissions.

When looking at a chart of the EU countries which have the lowest emissions from power generation, it’s no coincidence that it overlaps with a chart of the countries which have the highest share of hydropower in their energy mix.

Sweden, Austria, and France have extensive hydropower, with hydro providing 60% of Austria’s electricity. But these plants were built many decades ago, at a time when it was politically and financially easier to build massive dams at water bodies. The problem is that existing hydro plants are ageing, and few have been built in recent years.

“Hydropower is often forgotten when you speak about these long-term climate goals, but it plays a very important role – both as a source of low-carbon power generation as well as power system flexibility,” said Yasmina Abdelilah, at a Euractiv event last week – she leads the five-year global outlook for hydropower at the International Energy Agency.

“In Europe, the two main areas that need investment are in modernizing the existing fleet and pumped storage,” explained Abdelilah, “Europe’s fleet is about 40 to 60 years old on average, so you’re going to need refurbishment soon. Modernising the existing fleets should be prioritized just to keep it running, but also that gives you an opportunity to enhance the flexibility.”

Greenfield challenges

“Though there are challenges to new greenfield development, there’s a lot you can do with modernizing the existing fleet now,” she added, noting that pumped storage is an interesting new technology in this respect.

“Europe is one of the largest markets we’re seeing now globally for pumped storage because there’s a need for flexibility,” said Abdelilah. “But permitting has been cited by developers in the market as a barrier to faster development, as well as the business case. Currently, market design doesn’t necessarily remunerate or provide the business case for hydro pump storage unless you’ve got existing infrastructure where costs can be lower.”

Pumped storage hydropower plants contain two water reservoirs at different elevations that can generate power as water moves down from one to the other, passing through a turbine. They are generally considered less environmentally intrusive than classic hydropower plants at dams and waterfalls because they can be underground, and therefore have been more easily able to pass environmental impact assessments and get permits.

However, it has still been difficult to get financing for these projects, and permitting can still take many years.

Energy storage needs

Speaking at the Euractiv event, René Neuberger, the energy attaché for Austria’s permanent representation to the European Union, said that Austria is committed to not only maintaining its leading role with hydropower but also expanding it.

He said that evolving energy storage needs are a key reason why they’re looking particularly at pumped storage.

In addition to acting as a power generator, these plants can also act as a battery. “It answers the flexibility needs – you can use it when you need it,” he said. “When you look at wind power and solar power, you have shifts. So, you can use electricity when it’s cheapest to fill the hydropower pump station and release it when you need it or when it’s costliest. It stabilizes the markets; it stabilizes the grids.”

“With normal hydropower, you have just a river which flows and you’re basically just subject to whatever comes through the river,” he added. “The European Environmental Agency is telling us that according to the European Climate Risk assessment, in the future because of climate change, there will be difficulties when it comes to droughts and melting of ice. That will affect [river flows], so pumped storage is also a safe bet in that regard.”

One such proposed pumped storage project is Lünerseewerk II in Western Austria near the borders with Germany, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland.

The Austrian energy company developing the project, illwerke vkw, says it could provide about 1,050 megawatts of CO2-free electricity and 230-gigawatt hours of energy storage – not just for Austria but also neighbouring countries because the plant will be part of the German power control bloc.

Using existing infrastructure

The estimated investment costs are €2 billion, and they are still in the permitting process. The project would use existing infrastructure at the site. If completed, it would become Austria’s largest pumped hydro storage facility.

Speaking at the Euractiv event, illwerke vkw CEO Christof Germann said that in his view, the permitting procedures are still taking too long for pumped storage hydropower despite recent changes to the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) that are supposed to speed up approval for projects of strategic interest in fighting climate change.

“For us, it is important that the permitting procedures have a clear start and a clear end – no more than two years,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that the environmental impact assessment has to not be done properly. But we need a usable timeframe. If you build a hydropower plant you have three periods: the design, the permission, and the construction.”

He added: “It doesn’t make sense to try to save time in the first period, and there’s not many possibilities to save time in the third period, especially when you’re building a power plant in a high alpine region with lots of snow and limited accessibility. So, the only way to accelerate a project like that is during the permission period.”

Faster, but diligent

Cosimo Tansini, a policy officer with the campaign group the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), said at the event that he agrees that faster processing times don’t necessarily mean less diligent environmental impact assessments.

But Tansini said it’s still important to get it right considering the potential environmental damage that big engineering projects can cause. “The new EU rules are crucial, and we need to make sure the local, regional, and national authorities are equipped with the resources and the staff to make sure environmental impact assessments can be really sped up. A full EIA may not be required under the new RED.”

Tansini and Germann agreed that one way to speed up approvals would be to establish better communication with local communities early on in a proposed project, with the participation of NGOs. “We NGOs need to work together with the project developers and with the permitting authorities,” Tansini said.

This article follows the Euractiv-organised policy debate “Hydropower – Enhancing Storage and Flexibility for a Greener Future” supported by illwerke vkw.

[By Dave Keating I Edited by Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab ]

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