The hydroelectric sector, due to its ability to provide flexibility and storage services for grid balancing, can play a key role in the decarbonization of the energy system, which is driving European countries to accelerate the phase-out of coal and nuclear power plants in favor of renewable energy generation. To actively participate in the European Green Deal initiatives aimed at achieving climate neutrality by 2050, the hydroelectric sector must overcome several barriers by promoting measures to mitigate negative impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity and proposing the construction of sustainable plants.

From another perspective, hydropower should highlight the socio-environmental services it can provide in the event of extreme weather conditions (flood risk mitigation, water supply for drinking and irrigation purposes during prolonged droughts, etc.). The ancillary services provided to the grid are also significant because they ensure cost-effectiveness and security of supply and support the energy transition process.

The report addresses these issues by analyzing the research and innovation priorities identified in the European HYDROPOWER-EUROPE project and the strategies needed to make the hydropower sector sustainable. Various issues are discussed in the working groups of the ICOLD (International Commission on Large Dams) and ITCOLD (Italian Commission on Large Dams) committees. In particular, the Bulletin on capitalizing on the results of the 15 Benchmark Workshops organized by the Technical Committee on numerical analysis of dams from 1991 to 2019 is being drafted, and the proceedings of the 15th ICOLD Benchmark Workshop held in Milan in 2019 have been published.

In the ITCOLD working group on the “Behavior, Issues, and Rehabilitation of Gravity and Buttress Dams,” SE has applied an innovative numerical technique in dam engineering, the eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM), to analyze crack initiation and propagation. In the webinar “Climate Change and Reservoirs,” the ITCOLD Climate Change working group described how climate change could impact hydropower generation and water resource management. The “Dams and Territory” working group on the social acceptability of dams documented the feedback provided by stakeholders in the six workshops organized so far in Italy.