Category: <span>Essential Publications</span>

Want some hydropower? It does not come cheap!!!

International Renewable Energy Agency published RE costs data for 2019. Hydropower’s share of global renewable energy capacity fell from 76% (925 GW) in 2010 to just under 47% in 2019. Global installed hydropower capacity (excluding pumped hydro) was 1 189 GW at the end of 2019. It is the only …

The IEA’s Sustainable Recovery Plan recommends not discarding nukes and hydro right away

The new Sustainable Recovery Plan released by the International Energy Agency in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and economic crisis being felt across the world has recommended hydropower and nuclear reactor modernization as one of key policy measures. The plan seeks to show governments what they can do to boost …

STATUS OF THE DAM DAMAGE : The IHA reports how dwindling hydropower sector destroys biodiversity riches and social stability…and calls for its recovery.

The International Hydropower Association (IHA) published its 7th “Hydropower Status Report”. Report illustrates further decline of annually installed hydropower capacity, with “optimistic” estimate of only 15 GW added worldwide in 2019. We still tend to believe that the 12.5 GW figure from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is more …

Horizon Scan of the Belt and Road Initiative: Researchers Name Top Conservation Issues

An interdisciplinary group of researchers was assembled to identify ‘frontier horizon’ environmental and social issues for the BRI. One hundred issues were initially submitted and “rapid destruction of natural river ecosystems” came out as the most pressing issue of all (although it is not very novel). Chinese companies and financiers …

The Role of Energy Systems in Decline and Recovery of Aquatic Biodiversity

by Jeff Opperman , WWF-US Freshwater ecosystems and species are in crisis, and 2020 is a pivotal year for countries and companies to take steps to solve that crisis. What does this have to do with energy? A surprising amount.  From hydropower dams that fragment rivers and block fish migration …