Europe is challenged by raising energy prices following from the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the need to cost effectively speeding up the clean energy transition (CET) to reach the FIT for 55 goals of 55% greenhouse gas emissions in 2030, the newly proposed 2040 targets of 90% reduction and the Paris agreement targeting a zero-emission society from 2050. This requires a cross-covering approach which was already suggested in EERA’s White Paper on Clean Energy Transition, published in October 2021.

This has become even more relevant considering recent policies and initiatives such as the Nature restoration law, the cross-cutting digitalization group of the SET Plan following up on the Digitalising the energy system - EU action plan and the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) that mentions hydropower as one of the strategic technologies for the clean energy transition.

Within this background, it is very relevant to explore and extend the research frontier across different Joint Programmes for the revamped role of hydropower in the CET. This workshop addresses the main challenges of how hydropower technology combined with digitalization, grid and market integration can contribute to a faster and cost-effective transition, providing more flexibility to the power system while utilizing digitalization and under a broad understanding of the do-no-harm strategy. By this we mean respecting the need for nature conservation, restoration and provide new insights in the crossing of hydropower and social science. The research needs are many and diverse, the workshop will focus on the following topics:

The role of hydropower in the CET: addressing how Europe can make the most out of its hydropower resources in terms of challenges such as: integration on of renewable energy, speeding up the transition, build a European competitive edge with new hydropower technology.
LCA, biodiversity, public acceptance of hydropower: investigating how LCA can be adapted to include hydropower specific characteristics and complement other methodologies for assessing biodiversity, how should hydropower be developed to increase biodiversity and water security in Europe under the umbrella of do-no-harm.
Digitalisation for unlocking the hydropower potential and the clean energy transition in general: how can digitalisation reform the hydropower sector and be the tool for unlocking new potential and improved utilization that decreases cost on all levels from refurbishment to operation and maintenan

EERA workshop "Revamping hydropower research"