Hydro in Europe: Powering Renewables - Full Report - Eurelectric

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................7
2. THE EUROPEAN HYDROPOWER LANDSCAPE: FACTS AND FIGURES ......................10
2.1. HYDROPOWER’S CURRENT ROLE IN THE EUROPEAN ELECTRICITY SECTOR ................................ 10
2.2. REMAINING HYDROPOWER POTENTIAL IN EUROPE OVER 650 TWH A YEAR............................ 13
2.3. PUMPED STORAGE AS THE BATTERY FOR V-RES................................................................ 15
3. CHARACTERISTICS OF HYDROPOWER...................................................................22
3.1 KEY FEATURES OF THE ELECTRICITY SYSTEM ..................................................................... 22
3.2. THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF HYDROPOWER ......................................................................... 24
3.3 HYDROPOWER AS THE FLEXIBILITY TOOL ......................................................................... 32
3.4 CASE STUDIES ILLUSTRATING FLEXIBILITY......................................................................... 33
CASE STUDY 1 - Hydropower in the Nordic power system.......................................... 34
CASE STUDY 2 - Offsetting the black-out of 4 November 2006: hydropower’s
contribution ................................................................................................................. 35
CASE STUDY 3 - Hydropower in Austria: e=H2O........................................................... 36
CASE STUDY 4 - The Polish Zarnowiec hydropower plant’s contribution to
system stability ............................................................................................................ 36
CASE STUDY 5 - Norway`s important storage capacity and potential ......................... 37
CASE STUDY 6 - The operational evolution of pumped storage operation in
Switzerland .................................................................................................................. 37
CASE STUDY 7 - Pumped storage for integration of v-RES in Germany....................... 38
CASE STUDY 8 - Implementation of the EU WFD: challenges for hydropower ........... 39
in the Weser river basin in Northern Germany ........................................................... 39
CASE STUDY 9 - Wind Power and Hydro Storage Initiative in Ireland ......................... 40
3.5 HYDROPOWER – HIGHLY EFFICIENT, AFFORDABLE AND CLIMATE FRIENDLY.............................. 41
3.5.1 HYDROPOWER IS THE MOST EFFICIENT OF ALL RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES ..................... 41
3.5.2 HYDROPOWER PROVIDES THE MOST RELIABLE SERVICES WHILE SHOWING THE HIGHEST
ENERGY PAYBACK RATIO .......................................................................................... 42
3.5.3 HYDROPOWER IS THE MOST AFFORDABLE RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCE ............................ 43
3.5.4 HYDROPOWER HAS THE LOWEST CARBON FOOTPRINT AND IS THE MOST CLIMATE
FRIENDLY ELECTRICITY GENERATING TECHNOLOGY........................................................ 44
4. POLICY CHALLENGES TO HYDROPOWER DEVELOPMENT......................................46
4.1 HYDROPOWER FOSTERS THE ACHIEVEMENT OF EUROPE’S 2020 RENEWABLE ENERGY TARGETS ....... 49
4.2 HYDROPOWER IN EUROPE´S WATER POLICY FRAMEWORK .................................................. 52
4.2.1 CHALLENGES FOR HYDROPOWER RELATED TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EU WFD........ 52
4.2.2. HOW TO AVOID POLICY CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE EU WFD, RES AND CLIMATE
CHANGE ADAPTATION INITIATIVES ............................................................................. 53
4.2.3 OPPORTUNITIES FOR FURTHER COLLABORATION BETWEEN REGULATORS AND THE
HYDROPOWER SECTOR ............................................................................................ 54