Hydropower news and discussions

[wjfox]

Hydropower is electricity generated using the flow of water – typically from rivers or dams, but increasingly also from tides and waves. In this thread, we can discuss the latest news and developments in this area.

[wjfox]

Declining cost of renewables and climate change curb the need for African hydropower expansion

AUGUST 24, 2023

Hydropower, traditionally one of Africa's most important sources of electricity, will rapidly fade in importance and cede its position to solar power. The attractiveness of new hydropower is decreasing fast, both due to the increasing economic competitiveness of solar panels and to the increasingly uncertain effects of climate change on river flows. The majority of new dams proposed across Africa should, therefore, probably never be built, suggests a new study published in Science.

Abundant rainfall, massive gorges, enormous waterfalls: the geography of Africa has all the elements for producing electricity from river flow. For decades, many African countries have relied on hydropower for electricity generation, including projects that inspire as much awe as controversy. One only needs to think of Ghana's Lake Volta, the largest artificial lake in the world; the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Ethiopia's flagship project to provide millions of its citizens with electricity access; or DR Congo's dream of building the Grand Inga plant, which some claim could "light up all of Africa." And the voices that advocate for more of the same are strong: it is estimated that Africa has barely exploited 10% of its hydropower potential.

But is it a smart idea to plan for hundreds of new hydro dams across Africa? A new study from scientists in Italy, Austria, Ethiopia, and Belgium shows that this may not be the case. The study used a detailed energy model to investigate which combination of power sources would be most cost-effective for African countries to meet their rising demand until 2050—comparing hydropower to solar, wind, coal, natural gas, nuclear, and others. With unprecedented detail, the study individually considered every possible future hydropower plant in Africa—with its own storage size, river flow profile, and interplay with other hydropower dams.

"What is unique about our study is that we model every single hydropower plant in Africa individually—both existing ones and future candidates," explains Dr. Angelo Carlino, lead author of the study. "This way, our model can pinpoint which plants could be a smart investment and which ones should probably not be built."

Adding up all the numbers provides a sobering picture of the future of hydropower in Africa. The study found that up to 67% of possible future hydropower plants in Africa may not be worth the investment. This is mainly because hydropower will soon largely become unable to compete economically with solar and (to a lesser extent) wind power, whose costs have dropped at unprecedented rates in the last decade.

https://phys.org/news/2023-08-declining ... rican.html



The passage from Zambia to Zimbabwe through Kariba Dam. Credit: Manfidza/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

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Megawatt-scale wave energy project inches closer to realization
By Paul Ridden
August 06, 2024
https://newatlas.com/energy/eco-wave-po ... -portugal/

Eco Wave Power has been floating its wave energy system for more than 10 years, where the rise and fall of coastal waters drives hydraulic pistons that run a generator to produce electricity. Now the company is getting ready to build its first megawatt installation.

We've been following the progress of Eco Wave Power's journey to tap into the movement of coastal waters and generate electricity since early prototypes were tested in tanks back in 2012.

Though the system has been through a number of tweaks over the years, the basics are still the same. Floaters attached to a sea wall or other coastal infrastructure rise and fall with the motion of waves, which moves fluid to a land-based accumulator via the action of hydraulic pistons. Compressed hydraulic fluid is then released and drives an electric generator to produce electricity.

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Watch: Giant multibody wave energy converter flaps its way toward launch
By Abhimanyu Ghoshal
September 09, 2024

If you find yourself in the Australian port city of Albany and spot a humongous yellow machine bobbing in the waves of King George Sound, don't be alarmed. It's just a generator prototype making a case for renewable wave energy.

Developed by the University of Western Australia's Marine Energy Research Australia knowledge hub, the device is called the Moored MultiMode Multibody (M4) Wave Energy Demonstration Project.

Following the machine's launch ceremony last week, the plan is to operate it for six months (starting later this month) and gather data on how efficiently it generates energy. An even larger model will subsequently be built and deployed on the high seas.

https://newatlas.com/energy/video-giant ... australia/

[wjfox]

Tidal power: a key element in our future energy mix

One of the biggest forces on earth - tidal power - is beginning to take its place in our renewable energy mix, with the UK in a lead role

24 October 2024

One big challenge of the switch to renewable energy is unreliability. Critics often ask what happens when the sun doesn’t shine, and the wind doesn’t blow? But there is one renewable source which is consistent and never stops. For millions of years, the moon has been pulling all the water in the earth’s oceans up and down with absolute consistency for 22+ hours a day. That is a gigantic amount of energy.

And the UK is one of the places where the effects are greatest. There is only one place on earth where the tidal range is higher than the south west of England, where it rises and falls by 10 metres every day. Meanwhile, tides pull vast quantities of water between the Atlantic and North Sea through narrow gaps between Scotland, Orkney and Shetland.

[...]

Planned developments already expect to generate 130 megawatts in the UK by 2029, and there is a theoretical potential of 11 gigawatts, which would be 11% of the UK’s current consumption. This would be a significant contribution to the energy mix, especially in providing reliable baseload generation when the wind doesn’t blow, and the sun isn’t shining.

Richard Parkinson, CEO of Inyanga, is optimistic: "I think the sweet spot would be to put in 30 megawatt-plus projects, because I think that’s the point where the big investors will start taking an interest in tidal. In the next five years, I think we’ll be going through a lot of these demonstration projects. As long as these can get delivered and get the investment, I think tidal will be in a very strong place."

https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/environ ... nergy-mix/



Orbital Marine tidal generator off Orkney. Image by Scottish Government (CC BY 2.0)

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First onshore wave energy project in the US gets official nod
By Paul Ridden
November 19, 2024

https://newatlas.com/energy/eco-wave-po ... -approval/

Back in 2022, Eco Wave Energy announced plans to relocate its wave energy array from Gibraltar to the Port of Los Angeles. Now the company has secured final approval for what will become the first onshore wave energy project in the US.

The idea behind the setup is to mount a number of floaters on coastal infrastructure, which rise and fall to the motion of waves. This drives hydraulic pistons to move fluid to an accumulator, which is then released to produce electricity via a generator.

The concept was proven in tanks back in 2012 before scaling up to the first grid-connected pilot system in Gibraltar – which was operational for almost six years from 2016, and clocked up more than 49,632 grid-connected hours.

Other installations have followed in the years since, but it's the Gibraltar setup that was earmarked for removal in early 2022. The floater mechanisms weren't part of the export package, and reportedly would go to recycling, while the conversion unit would be overhauled and updated to meet US electrical standards ahead of transport to the US.

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The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved
By Joe Salas
January 04, 2025
https://newatlas.com/energy/yarlung-tsa ... ect-china/

China has approved what is set to become the biggest hydropower dam complex in the world, capable of producing nearly three times as much power as the current record-holder, the Three Gorges Dam.

The project is slated to be built on the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet near the border of India at a cost of US$137 billion. It's part of China's 14th "Five-Year Plan," which includes environmental goals to accelerate renewable energy and fight pollution. The location of the proposed dam looks to take advantage of the river's steep geography to harness more hydropower than ever before: 300 billion kilowatt-hours per year.

[caltrek]

World Bank Reverses Course to Back Mega Dams
by Jacques Leslie

January 14, 2025

Introduction:

(Undark) AFTER A DECADE of mostly declining to finance large hydroelectric dams, the World Bank is getting back into the business in a big way.

Throughout the last half of the 20th century, the bank was the world’s leading supporter of big hydro. But over the last two decades, it followed a zigzag pattern as dam supporters and critics inside the institution took turns determining hydro policy. During the last 10 years, the critics — disturbed by big dams’ huge social and environmental costs and their long construction timelines — seemed to dominate, and the bank supported only one new big hydro project.

But last month, the bank’s board of directors approved a scheme to make the bank the lead financier in a $6.3 billion project to finish construction of the Rogun Dam in Tajikistan. The frequently stalled project, launched in 1976, is now about 30 percent complete⁠. If fully built, it would become both the world’s tallest dam, at 1,100 feet, and with its total price tag of $11 billion, one of the world’s most expensive.

The World Bank and Democratic Republic of Congo officials also have been negotiating the terms of a deal that would include financing Inga 3, the third of eight proposed dams in a megaproject known as Grand Inga. Jaw-dropping in scale, Grand Inga is a $100-billion⁠ venture that would be the world’s largest dam scheme, nearly doubling⁠ the power output of China’s Three Gorges, currently the world’s largest hydroelectric dam, and potentially bringing electricity to a sizable chunk of the African continent. It would also reconfigure the hydrology of the world’s second-most-powerful river, the Congo, in what opponents consider to be environmentally harmful ways.

The article also includes a brief mention of a planned dams on the Arun river in Nepal. Shifting policies of the World Bank over time are also further discussed

Read more here: https://undark.org/2025/01/14/world-bank-mega-dams/

[firestar464]

Man I'm so brainrotten rn, I literally thought you wrote "MAGA dams"

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved
By Joe Salas
January 04, 2025
https://newatlas.com/energy/yarlung-tsa ... ect-china/

China has approved what is set to become the biggest hydropower dam complex in the world, capable of producing nearly three times as much power as the current record-holder, the Three Gorges Dam.

The project is slated to be built on the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet near the border of India at a cost of US$137 billion. It's part of China's 14th "Five-Year Plan," which includes environmental goals to accelerate renewable energy and fight pollution. The location of the proposed dam looks to take advantage of the river's steep geography to harness more hydropower than ever before: 300 billion kilowatt-hours per year.

More on that:

China’s Mega Dam Project Poses Big Risks for Asia’s Grand Canyon
by Fred Pearce
May 14, 2025

Introduction:

(Yale Environment 360) China has announced plans to build the world’s largest hydroelectric project at a remote river gorge in eastern Tibet, an ecological treasure trove close to a disputed border with India. Indian politicians have reacted angrily, saying it gives China the ability to release destructive “water bombs” across the border in any future conflict. They are planning a retaliatory dam on their side of the border that experts say could be at least as environmentally destructive.

Two Chinese dams will barricade the Yarlung Tsangpo, the Tibetan name for the Brahmaputra River, as it is about to flow through the world’s longest and deepest river canyon — think the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River, only three times as deep. Projected to cost $137 billion, the scheme will be the world’s biggest single infrastructure project, with almost three times the generating capacity of the world’s current largest hydroelectric dam, China’s Three Gorges on the Yangtze River.

Chinese ecologists say the canyon is one of the most precious biodiversity hotspots on the planet, containing some of Asia’s tallest and most ancient trees as well as the world’s richest assemblage of large carnivores, especially big cats. But India’s anger is geopolitical. Pema Khandu, the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh, the Indian state immediately downstream, called the project “a big threat” that could dry up the river through his state during routine operation and potentially be weaponized to unleash a flood in which, he said, hundreds of thousands could lose their lives.

Some independent experts share the concern. Ameya Pratap Singh, a political scientist at the University of Oxford, said in a report that China’s damming of its Tibetan rivers “effectively gives China a chokehold on India’s economy” if tensions between the two nations escalate. But others urge caution. Ruth Gamble, an environmental historian at La Trobe University, in Australia, says that, despite the project’s huge electricity-generating potential, the dams won’t hold back large volumes of water, so the potential to inflict harm downstream will be limited.

Read more here: https://e360.yale.edu/features/china-t ... ia-water

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Underwater tidal turbines get a 6-year reliability boost
By Abhimanyu Ghoshal
July 02, 2025

Tidal power is a fantastic source of clean, predictable energy – if you can harness it. It's proven immensely difficult due to a range of factors, but engineering giant SKF says it's making major headway in this field. The company claims to have set a world record for tidal turbine reliability at the MeyGen facility in Scotland, with systems operating continuously for over six years without unscheduled maintenance.

That's a big deal for this slow-growing energy sector, which involves numerous operational challenges including the constant need to service tidal turbines installed underwater in coastal areas with a high tidal range (the difference in water level between high tide and low tide at a specific location). Increasing the length of time between overhauls makes this technology more feasible to deploy and run over decades, without running up massive costs.

https://newatlas.com/energy/skf-proteus ... liability/

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[wjfox]

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First onshore wave energy project in the U.S. launches in Los Angeles

Along a rocky wharf at the Port of Los Angeles on Tuesday, seven blue steel structures bobbed in the gentle wake of a Catalina Island ferry. The bouncing floaters marked a moment for clean energy — the first onshore wave power project in the country.

The floaters belong to Eco Wave Power, a Swedish company behind the pilot project located at AltaSea, a nonprofit ocean institute at the port. They harness the natural rise and fall of the ocean to create clean electricity 24 hours a day.

The pilot project will generate a modest 100 kilowatts of power — enough for about 100 homes — but company officials said the ultimate goal is to install steel floaters along the port’s 8-mile breakwater to generate about 60 megawatts of power, or enough for about 60,000 homes.

Such an achievement could be replicated along other parts of the U.S. coastline, according to Inna Braverman, Eco Wave Power’s co-founder and chief executive. She noted that the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that wave power has the potential to provide more than 60% of the country’s energy needs.

https://www.latimes.com/environment/sto ... os-angeles

[wjfox]

London Eye architect proposes 14-mile tidal power station off Somerset coast

West Somerset Lagoon would harness renewable energy for UK’s AI boom – and create ‘iconic’ arc around Bristol Channel

Sat 27 Dec 2025 11.07 GMT

The architect of the London Eye wants to build a vast tidal power station in a 14-mile arc off the coast of Somerset that could help Britain meet surging electricity demand to power artificial intelligence – and create a new race track to let cyclists skim over the Bristol Channel.

Julia Barfield, who designed the Eye and the i360 observation tower in Brighton, is part of a team that has drawn up the £11bn proposal. It would curve from Minehead to Watchet and use 125 underwater turbines to harness the power of the second-highest tidal range in the world.

The proposal comes amid growing concern that rapidly rising use of AI in Britain will drive up carbon emissions unless more renewable energy sources are found. The AI boom is expected to add to sharp increases in demand for electricity across the UK, which the government estimated this month could more than double by 2050.

“If the decision is to go ahead with adopting more and more AI – which I am surprised is not being questioned more at a time of climate emergency – then it is going to be better with a renewable energy source,” said Barfield. “Datacentres could double energy demand and this is a predictable and reliable source.”

The barrage would not cross the full breadth of the channel but would instead curve to and from the Somerset coast with a 2.5GW maximum output – not far short of the peak energy that will be created by the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station just 12 miles east. It would be enough to power 2m homes.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... rset-coast



A visualisation of the full arc of the proposed lagoon. Illustration: Marks Barfield Architects

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