This 101 talk on how regional electric grids and markets work, and how hydro fits in to the electricity landscape, will help river advocates engage in discussions about project economics in a meaningful way during relicensing, and begin to think about coming issues for hydropower in the continuing energy transition.
This research provides a global-scale evaluation of the impact of dam construction by using a variety of global spatial databases. In particular, it provides insight into the impacts on economy, population, and greenness of 631 recently built hydropower dams by region and dam size. They discovered that 631 recently built hydropower dams were associated with reduced local economy, population, and greenness in areas within 50 km of the dam sites, particularly in the Global South. This is contrary to claims thatdams improve the livelihoods of people as well as ecosystemservices. The research highlights that policy interventions are needed to address impacts on populations and urban land near small and medium dams.
A key challenge to understanding ecohydrologic responses to dam regulation is the absence of a universally transferable classification framework for how dams operate. In the present paper, we develop a classification system to organize the modes of operation (MOPs) for US hydropower dams and powerplants.