What does sustainability in hydropower look like?

The awareness of sustainability is permeating all aspects of life as society becomes more aware of the impacts of climate change

Costa is spearheading the foundation of the Hydropower Sustainability Alliance. Demand from institutions and regulators for assurance that projects are being developed responsibly is growing and this is creating new opportunities for hydropower development in Africa.

“The awareness of sustainability, of intergenerational stewardship of our environment, of our communities, this is not specific to hydropower. It’s coming up in our lives, we are more aware of as a society of the impacts of climate change.

“We are aware of the things that we consume, the waste that is generated, the water that we use and the electricity that we also consume. We’re aware of that.

“So there is a concern about where does the things that we consume come from and is that generation, in the case of electricity, coming from a sustainable source. We all know that the fossil fuels are emitting carbon emissions, and for a number of reasons that is not good for our planet.

“So, we’re moving more into the renewables, more and more the wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal. This is all good, it’s a fantastic shift.

“… We need to understand the positive impacts and the negative impacts and that’s where the sustainability elements come from. How can we understand the impacts, good and bad and make decisions on the tradeoffs,” he explained.

Deliberately targeting sustainability can strengthen hydropower project planning

“How can we make decisions to optimise the good things, bring up all this electricity and low carbon power generation while minimising the negative impacts? So that’s where we are coming from,” says Costa.

Find out more about how the Alliance acts as custodian of the Hydropower Sustainability Standard (HSS) and how it works, the impact the standard can have on how projects are planned and assessed and the first hydropower project in Africa to achieve Gold certification under the HSS.

The 180MW run-of-river Ngonye Falls Hydroelectric Project in Zambia is located on the Upper Zambezi River in the Western Province. With commercial operation targeted for 2028, Ngonye Falls is expected to deliver an average of 887GWh of electricity annual to strengthen Zambia’s power supply and contribute to regional trade through the Southern African Power Pool.

Cover photo:   The proposed site for Ngonye Falls Hydroelectric project. Source: HSA