A study has been concluded on reviewing the effectiveness in Africa and Europe’s hydropower plants. “Harnessing Hydropower in Africa and Europe: Environmental Observations of Hydropower Plants” will be used to provide Scottish Water an in depth look at the sector for future projects.
For the report, environmental engineer Claire Chapman spent 10 days in Norway and one month in Africa visiting plants in South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia, and Tanzania. The report found that Norway implemented a solution to store power in its reservoirs, which can be released immediately, and are now capitalizing on this by selling energy storage to the European Union. African hydropower plants operate without guidelines being implemented on the rivers’ environmental requirements. This has cause more problems in sub-Saharan Africa with the onset of droughts as well as artificial droughts resulting from water-intensive crops.
Chapman said that although hydropower was a well-established reliable source of energy, it was capital intensive with long lead times which is not suitable for urgent energy demands.
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