HYDROPOWER EUROPE: The Voice of Europe's Hydropower Community

HYDROPOWER EUROPE, a multipartner initiative supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme, is a three-year long EU funded project that aims to gather input from the European hydropower community in order to agree upon common Research and Innovation priorities for the sector in Europe.

The main objectives of the project are:

• To provide a forum for the entire European hydropower community: industry, research, policy makers, end users and academia, active throughout its value-chain;
• To define a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda and a Technology Roadmap that aim to help guide funding authorities and particularly the European Commission to prioritise support where it is most needed so as to adapt the sector to the constantly evolving energy system.

Consultation through a series of online and face to face meetings, including regional workshops, will be undertaken to develop the research and innovation agenda and technology roadmap.

EASE is taking part in Hydropower-Europe project as full partner by contributing to all other activities. Moreover, the association is leading the work package 2 Hydropower Europe Community Support with the aim to implement wider stakeholder consultation process.

Three EASE members, Iberdrola, GE and CENER are involved in the project as linked third parties and two other members, CIRCE and ENEL is contributing as supporting organisations.

The action gathers a wide range of european and international partners, which will allow for the full involvement of the hydropower community in Europe and beyond. The coordinator is ICOLD, the International Commission on Large Dams with his regional club Europe. Other partners include:

• EREF, the European Renewable Energy Federation
• EUREC, the Association of European Renewable Energy Research Centres
• IHA, the International Hydropower Association
• SAMUI, which brings expertise in water / environmental research, and communication and dissemination
• VGB PowerTech, the international technical association for generation and storage of power and heat
• ZABALA, expert in energy-related platforms as well as project dissemination and communication.