INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Wembley Stadiums and more steel than eight Empire State Buildings
(Photo: Bloomberg)
On a late August visit to the facility, water on both sides of the dam was still
There was no sign of the white spray that usually rises from the the spillway or roar of water emerging from the the turbines
From California to Germany, heatwaves and droughts have shrunk rivers that feed reservoirs
fell 30% across China last month
utilities to reconsider the traditional role of hydropower as a reliable and instant source of green energy
(Photo: Bloomberg)
The problem is there are few renewable alternatives as flexible or widespread
Globally, hydropower generates more electricity than nuclear and more power than wind and solar combined
In countries like Norway and Brazil, dams generate more than half of total electricity
Moreover, large dams have historically been more reliable, producing power on average about 42% of the time, compared to 25% for wind and
12% for solar, according to BloombergNEF data
managing director for power and renewables at S-P Global Commodity Insights
1,200 years this year in the US West means parched reservoirs can only churn out half of the power they normally supply to California,
increasing the risk of rolling blackouts across the state
Nationwide hydro generation fell to 17.06 terrawatt-hours in September and was expected to plummet further in October, according to the
Energy Information Administration, the lowest since September 2016.
In Europe, dried-up rivers reduced September hydro generation to the
lowest since at least 2015, according to climate think tank Ember
power crunch caused by supply disruptions from Russia
In Brazil, which typically relies on hydro for more than 60% of its electricity, a
drought last year brought the country to the verge of power rationing and forced it to rely on increased imports from neighbors Uruguay and
Argentina, or to buy expensive fossil fuels to make up the deficit.
Dam operators must also balance competing requirements for their
Large dams provide irrigation for crops, water supplies for cities and navigation for ships
The primary purpose of the Three Gorges Dam, for example, was to control the annual flooding of the Yangtze that periodically devastated
towns and farms downstream
This summer, as drought reduced the flow of water into the river, the dam had to hold back enough water to maintain navigation to Chongqing,
Lake Mead irrigates hundreds of thousands of acres of crops
(Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Lake Mead, the reservoir behind the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the Western US, provides 90%
country has built more dams though than China, where the worst drought in at least 60 years in Sichuan, a province the size of Germany, cut
generation by 50% in August just as air-conditioning demand soared to counter a heat wave
Officials had to shut off power to many local factories for nearly two weeks, disrupting supplies for manufacturing giants including Apple
In neighboring Yunnan province, aluminum smelters are being forced to operate at reduced capacity to conserve power and give reservoirs a
chance to refill before the drier winter months, when electricity supplies could be tested again by high demand
To meet the energy shortfall, China has had to rely more on polluting coal and gas, even as global costs of the fuels soared to
analyst with The Lantau Group
grappling with less reliable supply from hydro turbines can invest in nuclear power or battery storage for wind and solar
Another option is to build more power lines to spread the load over more power sources in different regions.
Floating solar panels on
International Hydropower Association
the flexibility of hydro installations
A floating solar farm, operated by EDPR, on the artificial lake beside the Alqueva Dam in Alqueva, Portugal, on Tuesday, June 7,
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Yet extreme weather can affect all clean-energy sources
Wildfire smoke and dust storms dim solar panels, while plummeting winter temperatures can freeze up wind turbines
as the planet warms is compounding growing resistance to new hydropower projects in many countries
Dams have been blamed for disrupting ecosystems, loss of wetlands and the extinction of aquatic species
Gorges.
Those headwinds mean that hydropower is unlikely to keep its lead role in clean power for long
BloombergNEF expects an 18% increase in global hydropower capacity between now and 2050, compared to a more than 8-fold increase for solar
and at least 3-fold rise in wind power.
In fact, hydro development may be shifting to what was once a niche role in the industry:
For these, water is pushed back up into the reservoir during times of excess electricity generation and then allowed to flow down through
the turbines when more electricity is needed
The technology can be paired with intermittent wind and solar power to provide carbon-free electricity around the clock
Because pumped systems operate on a closed loop, they're less affected by droughts, according to the hydropower association.
China may
develop 270 gigawatts of such projects by 2025, according to the top state-owned dam builder, compared to the nation's plans to add 60
gigawatts of traditional hydro generation over the same period.
Hydro's struggles underline the difficulty of building a robust
renewable energy network to replace fossil fuels, especially in developing nations that must also contend with soaring electricity demand as
per-capita consumption rises
At the same time the drought issues underscore the need to speed up efforts to curb rising temperatures as the cost of making the energy
