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Geospatial and techno-economic assessment of potentials to increase run of river hydropower capacity in Switzerland
The Swiss Energy Strategy 2050 aims to achieve zero net emissions target as of 2050, which is based on four pillars: energy efficiency, renewable energy, new large-scale electricity production facilities, and for-eign energy policy. The spatially-explicit potentials of different low-carbon technologies in Switzerland are of great public, political, and research interest to understand the amount of energy that can be produced locally and the associated costs.
Keywords: renewable energy, Switzerland, hydropower, potential, low-carbon, social acceptance
One technology that has received relatively little attention, despite being well-established at commercial scale and providing base load generation, is Run-of-River (RoR) hydropower. In a Swiss context, where hydropower accounts for around 37 TWh or 54% of electricity generation in 2023, about half of this gen-eration comes from RoR plants. Most studies assessing the trajectories required to achieve a net-zero emission Swiss energy system assume very little additional hydropower capacity. Whilst this may be true for pumped storage and storage plants, there may be unrealised potential for economic refurbishment and/or extension of existing run-of-river plants in Switzerland to increase their capacity. Especially in the context of future nuclear power plant retirements, this option needs to be explored.
One technology that has received relatively little attention, despite being well-established at commercial scale and providing base load generation, is Run-of-River (RoR) hydropower. In a Swiss context, where hydropower accounts for around 37 TWh or 54% of electricity generation in 2023, about half of this gen-eration comes from RoR plants. Most studies assessing the trajectories required to achieve a net-zero emission Swiss energy system assume very little additional hydropower capacity. Whilst this may be true for pumped storage and storage plants, there may be unrealised potential for economic refurbishment and/or extension of existing run-of-river plants in Switzerland to increase their capacity. Especially in the context of future nuclear power plant retirements, this option needs to be explored.
This project aims to provide answers to this question based on techno-economic and geospatial analy-sis. The goal is to provide a “potential map” of Switzerland along with a set of scenarios consisting of powerplant -specific measures to increase capacity. The tasks of the project are:
• Reviewing the existing literature and potential estimation methods for run-of-river hydropower
• Gathering open-source data (note the resolution) that could be used and sort them into easily readable data formats
• Developing a potential estimation model (e.g. in Python) for RoR plants
• Visualization of the results in QGIS, write up report and scenario analysis
Required skills: Python, experience in GIS would be beneficial
This project aims to provide answers to this question based on techno-economic and geospatial analy-sis. The goal is to provide a “potential map” of Switzerland along with a set of scenarios consisting of powerplant -specific measures to increase capacity. The tasks of the project are: • Reviewing the existing literature and potential estimation methods for run-of-river hydropower • Gathering open-source data (note the resolution) that could be used and sort them into easily readable data formats • Developing a potential estimation model (e.g. in Python) for RoR plants • Visualization of the results in QGIS, write up report and scenario analysis Required skills: Python, experience in GIS would be beneficial
master_thesis_ch_potential_studies_RM_hydro Aug 2024.pdf
