Are Hydroelectric Power Plants Losing Their Advantages? Experts Point to Increased Solar and Wind Energy Production
And this creates serious competition for hydropower.
Electricity generated from the sun and wind continues to rapidly become cheaper against the backdrop of rising costs of generating energy at hydroelectric power plants, and the sharply falling cost of batteries for storing electricity is creating serious competition for the maneuverable capacity of hydroelectric power plants.
This is the conclusion reached by experts from the international environmental coalition Rivers without Boundaries, who cite new data on the development of renewable energy sources (RES). Asia-Plus has a press release from the organization.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has published its annual report, “The Cost of Generating Electricity from Renewable Energy in 2023.” The report shows that the difference in the cost of generating electricity between solar and hydroelectric power continues to widen around the world.
In 2022, energy from new hydroelectric power plants was 20% more expensive than energy from solar power plants, and in 2023 it was already 30% more expensive than solar energy, which, according to experts, should be of decisive importance when planning the construction of new energy capacities.
Environmentalists note that the construction of hydropower facilities in 2023 cost $2,800 per 1 kilowatt of installed capacity, which is 3.5-4 times more expensive than for a solar power plant, 2.5 times more expensive than for land-based wind power plants, and about the same as the cost of building offshore wind turbines. At the same time, the average construction period for a hydroelectric power plant is 7-10 times longer than for solar power plants, and 5 times longer than for wind turbines.
Thus, in the coming years, the only comparative advantage of hydroelectric power plants may remain the ability to flexibly regulate energy production during the day. However, even here, hydroelectric power plants are facing serious competition.
As experts note, the world is currently seeing an explosive growth in the creation of energy storage capacities – along with their radical reduction in price. Thus, the production of batteries has almost tripled over the past year (from 36 to 96 gigawatt-hours), and the price has decreased from $358 to $273 per 1 kilowatt-hour of battery capacity.
“A significant portion of batteries are currently used in combination with solar power plants to compensate for the lack of energy during the dark hours of the day. For example, Uzbekistan plans to commission 20 GW of solar and wind power plants by 2030, and in addition to them, 4.2 GW of batteries for energy storage,” says Evgeny Simonov, coordinator of the international coalition “Rivers Without Borders.”
In practice, this means that the creation of solar generation ($758 per 1 kW of capacity), equipped with a battery for storing energy for 2-4 hours ($253 per 1 kW*h), is now significantly cheaper (about $1000-1500 per 1 kW*h) than the creation of new maneuverable hydroelectric power plants.
“Central Asian countries should reconsider their energy system development plans in favor of combinations of energy capacities that can provide the region with cheap and reliable energy in the shortest possible time, while minimizing the impact on the environment. And these plans will definitely not have room for new hydroelectric power plants,” notes Alexander Kolotov, regional director of the environmental coalition “Rivers Without Borders.”
