Impacts of hot-dry conditions on hydropower production in Switzerland

Abstract

Hydropower plays a significant role in the transition towards a low-carbon power system, being a renewable energy source that can complement solar and wind power, which are highly intermittent. However, hydropower is itself dependent on local weather conditions and climate variability. Moreover, extreme climate conditions, such as hot-dry compound events, can have a major impact on hydropower production (HP). Here, we examine the impacts of hot-dry conditions on HP under current and future climate scenarios in Switzerland, a country where hydropower provides the biggest share (60%) of the total electricity production. Overall, our results point out that the impacts of hot-dry conditions on HP are case-specific. We found that hot-dry compound conditions during the warmer months negatively impact HP in power plants with little or no water storage capacity (run-of-river schemes). On the contrary, schemes with large, seasonal accumulation lakes and significant glacier resources will continue to be able to produce high amounts of HP during hot-dry conditions in summer, which is an important result for Alpine hydropower.