NEWSLETTER #1 _ December 2021

Dear Reader,

We are pleased to present the first Hydro4U newsletter! Hydro4U is an EU-funded project that aims at demonstrating European small hydropower equipment and technologies in Central Asia thus contributing to a sustainable and climate-resilient future for the region. Eco-friendly hydropower solutions will be implemented at two demonstration sites. Read more about the sustainable small-scale hydropower solutions in our special topic.

Since its start in June 2021, Hydro4U has already gathered pace. The project contributed to a summer school in Kyrgyzstan, part of the Hydro4U consortium made a trip to Central Asia to visit potential demo sites and meet with regional stakeholders and our project website hydro4u.eu has been launched. Read more in our News & Blogs section.

Hydro4U project brings together 13 partners from 8 countries and is funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. You want to get to know our partners? Then visit the partner section on our website.

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We hope you will be enjoying this first issue!

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Markus Reisenbüchler
Hydro4U Coordinator
Technical University of Munich
Chair of Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineering

Authors: Bertalan Alapfy, Technical University of Munich, Alexandra Vogt, Global Hydro

Hydro4U will employ demonstration activities and planning activities as a two-fold approach to elaborate, demonstrate and disseminate reproducible ecologically, economically and socio-politically sustainable solutions. This broader focus allows Hydro4U to target most of the unexploited small-scale hydropower potential, ranging from low to medium heads. Hydro4U will manufacture, deliver and install new designed, modular hydropower equipment. The smart, modular and scalable concepts are not tied to a specific manufacturer, and thus beneficial for all EU hydropower suppliers – for Central Asia and other developing markets.

DEMO 1: CONTAINER SOLUTION

Medium-head Francis Container Power Solution (FCPS) will be exploited with the structurally simple and standardised Francis Container concept.

The Francis Container Power Solution (FCPS) corresponds to a classic medium pressure concept for the lower power range. In Hydro4U, the structural part of the plant is rigorously reduced and standardised by eliminating the traditional powerhouse and installing the turbines in a prefabricated container.

Photo credits: Global Hydro

DEMO 2: SHAFT POWER PLANT

Sites with a low head can be exploited by run-of-river hydropower using the innovative Hydroshaft Power Solution (HSPS).

The Hydroshaft Power Solution (HSPS) is an innovative and sustainable concept that was developed at the Technical University of Munich. It is a low-head, run-of-river hydropower solution combining efficient power generation with providing ecological consistency for the river. Watch this video to discover how the shaft power plant works:

https://youtu.be/2neTrcoUV-8

The concept has already been applied within two commercial projects in Germany. Within Hydro4U, it is being further developed into a cost-efficient, modular and standardised system that will be demonstrated in Central Asia.

Photo credits: Technical University of Munich

Hydro4U website successfully launched!

The Hydro4U project website hydro4u.eu has been launched at the beginning of December. It informs about the project’s activities as well as its impact and partners. Besides, small-scale hydropower solutions and planning activities are presented. In addition to news & events, the website will offer free access to publications and media such as educational material, project videos or scientific publications being developed by the Hydro4U partners during the course of the project. Browse through the website to learn more about the project!

Visit of potential planning site in Tajikistan

Hydro4U aims at demonstrating European small hydropower equipment and technologies in Central Asia thus contributing to a sustainable and climate-resilient future for the region. Besides the demonstration activities, Hydro4U will also include planning activities to expand the focus of the project, both regionally and in terms of content. As Tajikistan has great potential for hydropower development in the Central Asian region, Oyture Anarbekov (IWMI) and Prof. Bakhtiyor Karimov (TIIIAME) visited the transboundary small river Karatag which crosses Shakhrinav and Mirzo Tursuzade districts of Tajikistan on 28^th November 2021. An important objective of this trip was to assess Karatag site's capacity as a potential planning site for Hydro4U, specifically taking into account the Water-Energy-Food nexus as well as environmental aspects. Furthermore, the visit provided a great opportunity for enhancing the cooperation between local stakeholders and the Hydro4U project partners. Pictures from the visit are available here.

EU-H2020 project Hydro4U contributes to KSTU’s Summer School

One task within Hydro4U is the development of academic programmes and courses on sustainable hydropower for students from Europe and Central Asia. Hydro4U project partner Kyrgyz State Technical University named after Iskhak Razzakov (KSTU) is hosting annually a two-week Summer School for students titled “Kyrgyzstan – Hydropower, Ecology and Hydromorphology”. From 14th to 26th September 2021, students from Germany and the Kyrgyz Republic experienced the incredible potential of hydropower in Kyrgyzstan but also learned about ecological impacts and sustainability related to ecology and hydro-morphology.

Starting the first stage of the Hydro4U project

Promoting and upscaling the implementation of the sustainable small-scale hydropower (SHP) technologies in Central Asia through the large-scale Hydro4U project activities are in full action. To reach the project’s first major stage, a project team consisting of part of the Hydro4U consortium undertook a trip to Central Asia visiting Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan from 22nd September to 3rd October 2021. The project team’s focus lay on the identification and assessment of several potential demonstration and planning sites where our innovative small hydropower planning tools and equipment could be implemented within the upcoming project tasks.

Making Hydro4U project activities visible and sustainable

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum (Steinbeis) stands for over 30 years of experience in innovation consulting and research funding throughout Europe and beyond. In cooperation with TUM, Steinbeis was strongly involved in the Hydro4U proposal writing. In the project, Steinbeis’ role is to coordinate dissemination and communication activities as well as exploitation measures.

FIThydro: Making sustainable hydropower a reality

Whilst being a renewable energy, hydropower has a rather large environmental footprint. The key to the wider use of hydropower is to make it more sustainable. Thanks to new cost-effective measures developed by the EU-funded FIThydro project, which is also coordinated by the Technical University of Munich, environmentally friendly, sustainable hydropower may soon be a reality. In Hydro4U, some FIThydro results were taken up and will also be transferred to Central Asia to be further implemented. READ MORE about FIThydro in this success story.

HyPeak: Survey on Hydropeaking Hydropower

In cooperation with the Hydropeaking Research Network (HyPeak), Hydro4U partners BOKU and TUM are conducting a survey to gather research priorities and emerging issues related to hydropeaking effects and mitigation, as well as to understand stakeholder perceptions with regards to ecosystem services. Experts working with hydropeaking hydropower are invited to participate in an anonymous 15-minute survey to support hydropeaking research. The survey is available in 6 languages and will run until 24^th December 2021. Please click here to start the survey.

• Hydro 2022, 25-27 April 2022, Strasbourg, France
• 27th ICOLD World Congress, 27 May - 03 June 2022, Marseille, France
• IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition, 11-15 September 2022, Copenhagen, Denmark

CONTACT

The copyright for layout, pictures and content of this newsletter lies with the EU project Hydro4U. Hydro4U does not assume any responsibility for externally provided content published on or linked to from https://hydro4u.eu/. External copyrights and sources are explicitly indicated in the text.