hydropower

Firefighters in Italy have recovered three casualties following an explosion at a hydropower plant owned by Italian utility Enel. Rescue workers are currently searching for four missing employees who were in the facility when the incident occurred.

Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN), the grid operator in Portugal, says that renewables covered 91% of national electricity demand in March. This marks the third consecutive month in which clean energy has exceeded 80% of total power demand.

Researchers from Norway have discovered that adding batteries to projects that combine hydropower and floating PV could increase annual profits by as much as 2%, due to revenues from ancillary services and capacity markets.

Japan’s Ricoh has designed a micro hydropower system for sewage plants that could potentially be used in combination with ground-mounted solar or floating PV. The system features a sustainable water turbine that the company designed with micro-hydroelectricity specialist Seabell Incorporated and the Kanazawa Institute of Technology.

Ignitis Group says it will increase the capacity of the 900 MW Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant by another 110 MW. It notes that the expansion project will be finalized by the end of 2026.

Japanese startup Yumes Frontier has developed a 2.7 kW micro-hydropower system that can be used in some buildings. It can also be combined with solar to provide power for lights and surveillance cameras.

Yalong Hydropower is building a 1 GW solar park that will be connected to an operational 3 GW hydropower facility on the Yalong River in southwestern China.

The Nant de Drance facility began commercial operations on July 1 and is currently one of Europe’s largest pumped-hydro storage stations.

Scientists from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have said that the combination of floating solar with hydropower could reduce PV curtailment.

Lake Onslow, New Zealand, could become home to one of the world’s largest pumped-hydro storage facilities. A local consortium is now conducting a feasibility study and is investigating possible system designs and precise locations.