Recent climate impacts on run-of-river hydropower and electricity systems planning in Switzerland
The transition towards renewable energies together with climate change is rendering electricity systems more vulnerable to climate conditions and trends. This study examines the impacts of recent climate change and variability on run-of-river (RoR) hydropower production and electricity systems plann...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ade4df |
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| author | Yann Yasser Haddad Lukas Gudmundsson Jonas Savelsberg Jared B Garrison Elena Raycheva Tobias Wechsler Massimiliano Zappa Gabriela Hug Sonia I Seneviratne |
| author_facet | Yann Yasser Haddad Lukas Gudmundsson Jonas Savelsberg Jared B Garrison Elena Raycheva Tobias Wechsler Massimiliano Zappa Gabriela Hug Sonia I Seneviratne |
| author_sort | Yann Yasser Haddad |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The transition towards renewable energies together with climate change is rendering electricity systems more vulnerable to climate conditions and trends. This study examines the impacts of recent climate change and variability on run-of-river (RoR) hydropower production and electricity systems planning. We present an end-to-end pipeline to convert runoff and hydropower specifications into hydropower generation and subsequently integrate it into an electricity systems model. Applying this methodology to Switzerland, we provide a re-analysis of hydropower generation for each RoR power plant with capacities of 300 KW or more for the period 1991–2022. When aggregated on a national scale, our estimations match well nationally reported production and displays a climate-driven year-to-year variability. Our results show an overall tendency towards decreased RoR production in the past decades in Switzerland due to climate change (decrease in water availability). This trend was compensated at a national level with an infrastructure expansion. Based on the derived hydropower time series, we simulate the electricity system under scenarios with either no or a high renewable energy target and showcase contrasting sensitivities of electricity prices to climate variability. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-df5d275040e043d0a12bf1b7cd9e4b34 |
| institution | Matheson Library |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-df5d275040e043d0a12bf1b7cd9e4b342025-07-28T16:30:25ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262025-01-0120808402010.1088/1748-9326/ade4dfRecent climate impacts on run-of-river hydropower and electricity systems planning in SwitzerlandYann Yasser Haddad0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4314-3947Lukas Gudmundsson1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3539-8621Jonas Savelsberg2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2425-6214Jared B Garrison3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0398-3623Elena Raycheva4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2712-1016Tobias Wechsler5https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9017-5346Massimiliano Zappa6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2837-8190Gabriela Hug7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4312-616XSonia I Seneviratne8https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9528-2917Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zürich , Zürich, SwitzerlandInstitute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zürich , Zürich, SwitzerlandEnergy Science Centre, ETH Zürich , Zürich, SwitzerlandFEN—Research Center for Energy Networks, ETH Zürich , Zürich, SwitzerlandEnergy Science Centre, ETH Zürich , Zürich, Switzerland; Power Systems Laboratory, ETH Zürich , Zürich, SwitzerlandSwiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL , Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandSwiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL , Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandPower Systems Laboratory, ETH Zürich , Zürich, SwitzerlandInstitute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zürich , Zürich, SwitzerlandThe transition towards renewable energies together with climate change is rendering electricity systems more vulnerable to climate conditions and trends. This study examines the impacts of recent climate change and variability on run-of-river (RoR) hydropower production and electricity systems planning. We present an end-to-end pipeline to convert runoff and hydropower specifications into hydropower generation and subsequently integrate it into an electricity systems model. Applying this methodology to Switzerland, we provide a re-analysis of hydropower generation for each RoR power plant with capacities of 300 KW or more for the period 1991–2022. When aggregated on a national scale, our estimations match well nationally reported production and displays a climate-driven year-to-year variability. Our results show an overall tendency towards decreased RoR production in the past decades in Switzerland due to climate change (decrease in water availability). This trend was compensated at a national level with an infrastructure expansion. Based on the derived hydropower time series, we simulate the electricity system under scenarios with either no or a high renewable energy target and showcase contrasting sensitivities of electricity prices to climate variability.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ade4dfhydropowerrun-of-riverclimate variabilityclimate changeenergy-climate-water nexusresilient electricity system |
| spellingShingle | Yann Yasser Haddad Lukas Gudmundsson Jonas Savelsberg Jared B Garrison Elena Raycheva Tobias Wechsler Massimiliano Zappa Gabriela Hug Sonia I Seneviratne Recent climate impacts on run-of-river hydropower and electricity systems planning in Switzerland Environmental Research Letters hydropower run-of-river climate variability climate change energy-climate-water nexus resilient electricity system |
| title | Recent climate impacts on run-of-river hydropower and electricity systems planning in Switzerland |
| title_full | Recent climate impacts on run-of-river hydropower and electricity systems planning in Switzerland |
| title_fullStr | Recent climate impacts on run-of-river hydropower and electricity systems planning in Switzerland |
| title_full_unstemmed | Recent climate impacts on run-of-river hydropower and electricity systems planning in Switzerland |
| title_short | Recent climate impacts on run-of-river hydropower and electricity systems planning in Switzerland |
| title_sort | recent climate impacts on run of river hydropower and electricity systems planning in switzerland |
| topic | hydropower run-of-river climate variability climate change energy-climate-water nexus resilient electricity system |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ade4df |
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