Input to the TEG Draft report

Supplementing the Eurelectric position paper on the TEG report as well as the additional Eurelectric input submitted on 29 October, we would like to refer to further sources and data.

All our provided information and scientific data clearly show that LCE of hydropower projects in Europe and regions are well below the threshold of 100 gCO2eq/kWh. Therefore, we call to exempt existing as well as new European hydropower projects from a LCA. Europe has a unique opportunity to establish its global leadership in clean technologies and sustainability in the fight against climate change in line with the Paris agreement. Even though, the revised Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001/EU (RED II) only foresees an overall EU target for renewable energy sources consumption by 2030 of 32%, the majority of electricity will be provided by renewables in the future. By 2045, renewables will represent more than 80% of energy supply driven by rapid cost decline, increasing capacity factors, and large untapped resource potentials.1 In this context, hydropower has been contributing significantly to achieving EU’s decarbonisation and renewable energy targets:With a total generation of more than 330 TWh per year equalling to about 30% of the electricity generated from renewable energy sources and about 10% of the gross electricity generation of EU28 in 2017.

Hydropower has been providing significant amounts of balancing power, facilitating the efficient integration of the constantly increasing shares of variable renewables such as wind and solar power. Due to the projected increase in variable renewables, the importance of hydropower will rise in the future. Hydropower will provide the future power system with storage and flexibility services, thus allowing for higher shares of wind and solar power without compromising security of supply and system stability.

Moreover, hydropower shows the highest energy payback of all generation technologies. This means that hydropower has the lowest ratio between the total electricity output over its lifetime and the energy needed to build, operate, maintain and decommission a specific plant. During its long lifetime (up to 80 years and even longer), a hydropower plant can generate far more than 200 times the energy needed to build, maintain and operate it.

The hydropower sector plays a key role in supporting Europe’s clean energy transition to reach its international climate objectives. Hydropower is not only highly resource-efficient (with 85% to 95%) but is also crucial in fighting climate change. With its low-carbon footprint, hydropower can provide significant volumes of renewable low-carbon electricity, both for base and peak load. Once built, hydropower infrastructure can generate electricity for many decades, even for more than 100 years. For this reason, life-cycle assessments of hydropower provide a very good carbon footprint (defined as the total quantity of GHG emitted over the lifecycle) and energy efficiency profile. Lifecycle GHG emissions for different electricity generation technologies clearly show that hydropower plants have the lowest carbon footprint among all generation technologies. Furthermore, hydropower even contributes to avoiding CO2 emissions. Assuming that hydropower would be replaced by the current generation mix, hydropower avoids about 180 1 2 Mt of CO2 emissions in the EU28, equalling to 15% of total power sector emissions. Research even shows that each MWh of additional hydropower generation leads to savings between 0.3 to 0.7 t of CO2.

For more information: here