Yes! This is actually a research question we’re looking into at the moment. There’s already some work done on assessing the impact of future climate on certain hydropower plants (check Wechsler & Stähli 2019).

Many thanks to my supervisors and co-authors for their support and collaboration! @lukasgudmundsson.bsky.social @soniaseneviratne.bsky.social @jonassavelsberg.bsky.social
Jared Garrison
Elena Raycheva
@tobias-wechsler.bsky.social
@hydrologywsl.bsky.social
Gabriela Hug-Glanzmann

𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙞𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨:
Even when focusing on one component of the electricity system, we can already detect the footprint of climate change and variability. This highlights the need to include climate change and variability in future energy systems planning.

We then fed these climate-informed time series into Nexus-e, an electricity system modelling framework. We noticed that electricity prices respond differently depending on policy assumptions, with the strongest variation perceived in winter.

We successfully modelled generation from 600+ run-of-river plants across Switzerland (1991–2022).
At first glance, generation seems to increase, but that’s mostly due to capacity expansion.
When we isolated the hydro-climatic effects, the trend is actually slightly declining, especially in summer.

I read about the lawsuits, I really hope something comes out of them. I’m glad to hear that groups are mobilizing. But I am a bit surprised to see very little coverage of protests, marches and other activities (aside from lawsuits) in large media outlets, whether in the US or outside.