Hydropower industry braces for glacier-free future
By Emma Thomasson RHONE GLACIER, Switzerland (Reuters) – Standing on the glacier at the source of the Rhone river, glaciologist Andreas Bauder poses next to a 3-meter high pole sticking out of the ice, and gestures above his head. “This is about the melt of one month,” he says, as fellow scientists drill into the ice. “I’m about two meters tall.” From the Himalayas to the Andes, faster-melting glaciers spell short-term opportunities — and long-term risks — for hydroelectric power and the engineering and construction industries it drives. The most widely used form of renewable energy globally, hydro meets more than half Switzerland’s energy needs. As summers dry and glaciers that help drive turbines with meltwater recede, that share may eventually fall. A study by Lausanne’s EPFL technical university forecast a decline to 46 percent by 2035 for hydro from around 60 percent now as precipitation declines and total energy use increases. In the same way as the Himalayas are “Asia’s water-tower,” Switzerland is the source of Europe’s biggest rivers, supporting agriculture and waterways, and cooling nuclear power stations. …
