Can hydropower help ease Europe’s energy crisis?

After a parching summer, reservoirs were depleted—but the outlook for 2023 is more promising

This photograph shows an aerial view of the usually submerged ruins of the former village of Aceredo, appearing from the Lindoso hydroelectric plant reservoir due to the low water level, near Lobios, Ourense province, northwestern Spain, on February 15, 2022. - People living in the Aceredo village were evicted from their homes in 1992 for the construction of the reservoir. (Photo by CARMELO ALEN / AFP) (Photo by CARMELO ALEN/AFP via Getty Images)

Dec 5th 2022

The Loire, France’s longest river, was an apocalyptic sight this summer. Parts of the river network had dried up completely by mid-August; the rest was reduced to a trickle. It had happened before but this year the timing was particularly bad. Energy prices had soared in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Nuclear-power production in France was hampered by maintenance, repairs and low water levels in rivers used for cooling. And in mid-August hydro plants powered by France’s rivers generated just half the electricity they would normally produce in August (based on an average of the three years before). That pattern played out across much of the continent. In 2023 gas prices will almost certainly stay high and Europe’s energy crisis will continue. Could hydropower ease the problem next year?

This article appeared in the The Economist explains section of the print edition under the headline “Can hydropower help ease Europe’s energy crisis?”