2023 World Hydropower Congress Programme

Digital technologies are playing a disruptive role in the energy industry. Major challenges, including access to finance, are hindering the development of this vital resource in Africa. This session will dive into the opportunities to overcome these challenges

This session will explore developments and trends in this area, focusing on how the hydropower sector is upgrading for the digital age and showing the potential benefits for the hydropower industry and to electricity more broadly.

Development of hydropower projects typically takes 10-15 years. But with the need to take urgent action on climate change, is there a way to make this process more efficient? This session will look at global and local initiatives, including the  work of the Planning for Climate Commission, to accelerate the realisation of hydropower and other renewable energy projects, including streamlining the permitting process.

As electricity grids become more dependent on variable sources of generation such as solar PV and wind, the need for deep storage and flexibility will increase in line with decarbonisation. This session will explore hydropower's critical role in enabling the energy transition and how it supports keeping the lights on.

This session will raise awareness of Floating solar photovoltaic systems as a concept; facilitate a discussion between solar and hydropower sectors and the potential for collaboration between the two sectors; and explore available technology options and technical guidance for best practice.

The pathway to a net-zero economy is posing unprecedented challenges to European power systems and to achieve a safe energy transition we must make sure that the flexibility potential of the existing fleet is maximised. The XFLEX HYDRO consortium has extensively studied and successfully implemented a set of innovative hydropower technologies, such as Variable Speed, Battery Hybridisation, Hydraulic Short Circuit and Plant Digitalisation; this session will be a unique opportunity to discover its key results and recommendations.

In 2021, industrial activity was directly responsible for roughly a quarter of global CO2 emissions (IEA 2022). The demand for electricity is likely to go up between 2 to 3 times by 2050, largely driven by electrification of end uses (buildings, transport and industry).

This session will focus on the opportunities hydropower offers to support the decarbonisation of the industry overall, along with ways in which we can develop a greener supply chain for the hydropower industry.

This event will demonstrate best practice to develop joint, climate-resilient investments in water, energy, agriculture and the environment.

Independent ESG standards minimise risks for investors, provide a common framework to communicate credentials and increase stakeholder trust. This session will explore the business value of the Hydropower Sustainability Standard and how it can attract investments through international financial institutions, private sector, insurance companies, green bond mechanisms and carbon markets.

Asia offers significant hydropower potential, with the region accounting for nearly 40 per cent of the world’s installed capacity and annual generation. This session will present the latest trends and developments shaping the region including: an overview highlighting where capacity has been added as well as significant policy and project updates; and short deep dives into key countries in the region from local experts and policy makers.

Africa has the largest untapped potential for hydropower development in the world. Sustainable hydropower presents an opportunity for economic development, the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and resilience to climate change.

Challenges are hindering the development of this vital resource in Africa especially access to finance, climate resilience and adaptation.

This session will investigate hydropower’s role in the European energy transition. This includes reviewing the capacity targets that will be required to support the large deployment of variable renewable energies to achieve a net-zero economy. Discuss key challenges, including financial, technical and regulatory aspects that are limiting the expansion and modernisation process of the hydropower fleet in Europe.

Hydropower is a mature technology in both North and South America.

In this session we will discuss the opportunities and challenges, specifically, modernising ageing infrastructure, increasing regional interconnectivity, building social acceptance of projects and designing market mechanisms that value the full services of hydropower.

Pumped storage currently represents ~90% of installed electricity storage, but substantially more will be needed to support the integration of variable renewable energy as countries plan for their net zero targets. This session will focus on new developments in pumped storage hydropower, exciting policy announcements and the massive potential for off-river pumped storage hydropower.

This session will explore how hydropower and other renewable sources of energy are defined in finance and policy guidelines such as the EU Taxonomy and national green policies with a view of providing recommendations about ensuring that it is consistently classified as renewable

Multi-purpose reservoirs are large scale infrastructures that provide benefits beyond hydropower generation.  

This session aims to examine the potential benefits of hydropower infrastructure beyond generating electricity, such as flood and drought control, water storage, irrigation and transport.

Integrating hydropower sustainability into river basin planning involves complex trade-offs between balancing energy production with the environment.  

This session will focus on how the Hydropower Sustainability Standard can be complimentary with river basin planning at a system level to promote their sustainable management.

Indonesia's energy sector is transitioning from hydrocarbons to renewables, especially hydropower. The government of Indonesia has pledged to achieve net zero targets by 2060.

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This session will bring together key players from within the country - government, companies, communities and financiers to explore plans for an inclusive transition.

Future energy systems will pool energy resources across countries, optimising hydropower alongside other renewables.

This session will highlight the benefits of regional interconnection and hydropower potential for regional markets.

Most policy and market frameworks do not adequately incentivise investment in greenfield hydropower development. Given the long lead times involved, investment decisions are needed now to ensure solutions are available in advance of market needs.

This session will focus on some financial mechanisms that countries have recently started implementing (e.g. Australia, India, Poland, France), as well as findings from the World Hydropower Outlook.

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Over 40% of hydropower’s global fleet is at least 40 years old. This is both a huge challenge for the sector, as well as an excellent opportunity to make sure that the existing  fleet is ready to support the evolution of a modern power system and increase its resilience towards extreme climatic events.

This session will review the current drivers and trends in modernisation, offering the opportunity to review successful cases and identifying the main barriers currently limiting investment in these projects.

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Standards are critical to promote transparency and trust in sustainability claims. This session will discuss the need for standards for best practice in sustainability and how those are being applied to the hydropower sector.

A career in hydropower provides access to many of the most exciting opportunities in the global economy, with the potential to appeal to a wide spectrum of society.  This session will look at the many opportunities and challenges in securing the next generation workforce needed to deliver the renaissance in hydropower.