Central Asia is a singular region in terms of Small Hydropower (SHP) development. Although the zone has the second largest SHP potential (up to 10 MW) in the world with 34.4 GW, it is the area with the lowest percentage of SHP development, with only 0.8% of SHP exploited so far.[1]

Behind these low figures, there is a great number of political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental barriers. There are common issues as the lack of information on SHP or the lack of private sector funding. Moreover, some Central Asian countries have to deal with extreme weather conditions which negatively affect hydropower development, as for example in high altitude regions where streams are likely to freeze in winter.

Hydro4U aims to boost European SHP industry by adapting existing European high-quality solutions to the demands and resources of Central Asia. Furthermore, in order to accelerate the exploitation of these solutions, a replication strategy is being elaborated.

CARTIF is a technology Centre with more than 25 years of experience in the development of renewable energy projects and in the definition of strategies for energy transition. In the context of Hydro4U, CARTIF is leading the replication activities. A key point of our work will be the development of a replication guideline tool, aimed at future investors or public authorities to support decision-making on new SHP projects in Central Asia. The tool will be based on a computational model integrating GIS information and statistical data and will be implemented at river basin level.

Currently, it is planned that the tool will consist of several interactive modules, aiming to (1) visualise the total sustainable HP potential and installed capacity, (2) simulate hydropower (HP) generation scenarios considering Water-Food-Energy-Climate Nexus constrains, sustainability of resources and socio-economic impacts and (3) provide HP technology recommendations as well as lessons learnt related to the implementation of new HP projects.

The tool is intended for public use and is therefore not only aimed at experts who are familiar with the specific details, but also at decision-makers, investors and politicians.

[1] United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. 2019 World Small Hydropower Development Report (WSHPDR)]

Authors: Raquel López, Iván Ramos, Ismael Lozano and Fredy Vélez, CARTIF

Partner description: CARTIF
Website:  www.cartif.es
Twitter: @CARTIFCT
LinkedIn: CARTIF
Facebook: CARTIF
YouTube: CARTIFTV

In Hydro4U, an international consortium of multiple experts is collaborating to promote small-scale hydropower in Central Asia. We, at Steinbeis Europa Zentrum, are making the hard work of our technical colleagues visible by presenting our project activities and achievements in an easy-to-understand way, for experts and non-experts alike!

Here is what we have developed for you to dive into our project!

Our Hydro4U project website informs you about the technologies developed to demonstrate small-scale hydropower in central Asia. Discover our technological solutions: the container solution and the shaft power plant. Moreover, you can find regular blogs depicting the work of our project partners and our latest news. In our event section, you will find inspiration where to meet our consortium or the hydropower community! Recently, main parts of our website have been translated into Russian to better reach stakeholders and the general public in Central Asia! Click here to browse through our website in Russian language.

Until today, we have published two newsletters giving an update on our project activities. While the first newsletter was focused on sustainable small-scale hydropower solutions developed in Hydro4U, the second newsletter was dedicated to our demonstration site “Shakimardan” in Uzbekistan where small-scale hydropower will be demonstrated using the Francis-Container-Power-Solution manufactured by Global Hydro. If you would like to receive future editions, subscribe here.

Finally, have a look at our brand-new project leaflet in EN or RU to get a quick overview about our project partners, aims and technical solutions!

To get the latest updates on Hydro4U, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube channel!

Author: Kathrin Eckerlin, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum

For general information and press inquiries, please send an email to: info@hydro4u.eu

Partner description: Steinbeis Europa Zentrum
Website: https://www.steinbeis-europa.de/en/home
Twitter: @SEZ_Europa
LinkedIn: Steinbeis Europa Zentrum
Facebook: @Steinbeis.Europa.Zentrum
YouTube: Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum

GLOBAL Hydro is the world’s first contact for digital small hydropower technologies and ensures a livable environment for the future through innovative solutions. The independent company with many years of experience in hydropower specialises in Kaplan, Pelton and Francis turbines in the range of 100kW to 30MW. In Hydro4U, Global Hydro will develop turbine technology that meets the requirements in Central Asia in terms of costs, installation, maintenance and operation while ensuring the highest European quality standards.

GLOBAL Hydro is very active in Asia. The company was Platinum Sponsor of the most important hydropower fair in Nepal: the World Expo Himalayan Hydro Expo 2022 in Kathmandu that took place from 2^nd to 4^th of April 2022. Besides, a few months ago, GLOBAL Hydro founded GLOBAL Hydro India, a new subsidiary with more than 60 employees, to further support and expand their existing project network in Central Asia.

GLOBAL Hydro’s role in Hydro4U is to adapt their hydropower solutions for the Hydro4U demo sites. Their goal in the project is to further develop two different technologies in a forward-looking manner:

• on the one hand, an innovative Kaplan turbine for irrigation canals and existing weir structures in a modular design and
• on the other hand, the Francis Container: smarT container solution for medium heads.

For this purpose, two demonstration sites will be selected and realised: one with the innovative Kaplan turbine, and one with the Francis smarT solution. Thus, GLOBAL Hydro will be able to show these two core technologies.

Their activities in Central Asia will highlight the potential of small hydropower worldwide as:

• the Hydro4U demonstration sites shall inspire to exploit unused hydropower potential worldwide, regardless of their size
• GLOBAL Hydro will show that such kind of products with European quality standards are feasible in Central Asia as well as worldwide.

Author: Alexandra Vogt, GLOBAL Hydro

Partner Description: GHE
Website:  https://www.global-hydro.eu/en
LinkedIn: Global Hydro Energy
Instagram: globalhydroenergy
Facebook: Global Hydro Energy

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is a non-profit, research-for-development organisation, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, that works with governments, civil society and the private sector to solve water problems in developing countries and scale up solutions. IWMI opened a subregional office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 2001. It is the only international institute conducting water research in Central Asia. Together with the numerous partners and stakeholders from their broad network, IWMI tackles the key water management issues facing the region. IWMI identifies the best practices for improving irrigation performance, reversing land degradation, addressing interlinkages in the water-energy-food nexus, improving the efficiency of water and energy use, promoting the economic efficiency of water management, and enhancing transboundary water cooperation and governance in shared river basins. IWMI’s strategy is centered around three strategic programmes – Water, Food and Ecosystems; Water, Climate Change and Resilience; and Water, Growth and Inclusion – each supported by high-quality science and digital innovation.

In Hydro4U, IWMI is responsible to carry out the quantification of shared benefits and trade-off analyses from small-scale hydropower (SHP). The cross-sectoral nexus dimensions need to be fully understood, not only at regional level, but also in the specific local contexts where SHP solutions are planned. Therefore, a seminar was held on 9^th March 2022 in Fergana (Uzbekistan) to exchange views with the population and local authorities on the assessment of the nexus interdependence and cross-sectoral distribution of interests. The purpose of the consultation meeting was to discuss with local stakeholders from Ferghana district the importance of the nexus between Water-Energy-Food and Climate in the context of SHP installation in Shakhimardansay, one of the demonstration sites selected under Hydro4U.

Therefore, it is important to understand how SHP will influence other sectors in the region and how it will improve socio-economic conditions of the enclave Shahimaradansay. The aim was to bring together representatives of the water, energy, agricultural and environmental sectors as well as local authorities.

The water, energy and food sectors are so strongly interlinked that actions in one area commonly impact on one or both of the other sectors. Yet, all too often, these sectors operate in isolation, and seeking security in one sector may in fact compromise others or affect negatively the integrity of ecosystems.

In transboundary basins, obtaining harmonised data from all riparian countries and forming a holistic and shared picture of the situation and future scenarios is more complicated and requires specific approaches and policy dialogues. A joint assessment of intersectoral links, trade-offs and benefits serve the development of more coherent policies, reducing frictions between sectors and environmental impacts, as well as promoting the expansion of cross-border cooperation.

The nexus approaches help governments, investors and local communities think about where and how to maintain, restore and improve ecosystems and biodiversity, regenerate agriculture, and support sustainable irrigation, clean energy, and agro-processing needs. The nexus approach involves a broad range of actors (including women, youth and vulnerable groups) and stakeholders working together to connect systems in ways that seek equitable economic and social well-being.

IWMI will assess the cross-sectoral nexus at regional level and in the specific local contexts where SHP solutions are planned.  A situational analysis report and survey to document site-specific characteristics will be prepared. Geospatial analyses will be enriched by interviews with stakeholders in the catchment area to capture detailed socio-economic dimensions on the ground. An investigation will be undertaken to determine to what extent site-specific learnings are transferable to the Central Asian context, to interstate canals and transboundary river basins.

IWMI jointly with other Hydro4U partners will conduct a mapping of the main actors at selected demo and test sites, of their roles and responsibilities and investigate the formal and informal institutions that exist to foster water governance. The robustness of sharing agreements will be screened according to their “climate-readiness”, including from the perspective of the extent of non-cooperation in the respective contexts.

Author: Saida Usmonova, IWMI-Tashkent

Partner Description: IWMI
Website:  https://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/about/where-we-work/asia/iwmi-in-central-asia/
LinkedIn: International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

From a hydrological perspective, semi-arid Central Asia is a region of immense contrasts. On its south-eastern fringe are the large mountain ranges, including the Hindu Kush, the Pamir, the Gissar-Alay, and the Tien Shan. From there, the major rivers of the region emerge, including the Harirud and Murghab rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya as part of the Aral Sea basin, and finally, the Chu River and Talas River (Figure 1). These rivers are mostly snow melt-fed, with peak discharge occurring during the warm boreal summer months. During the irrigation season, much of the annually available water gets allocated for agricultural production in the downstream. This has allowed the region to prosper for millennia and led to the Aral Sea’s desiccation in the second half of the 20^th century after irrigation systems saw a significant expansion in the area.

hydrosolutions GmbH (HSOL) is the lead expert agency on hydrology and remote sensing in the EU Horizon 2020 Hydro4U project. The team has more than 15 years of experience in the region. Additionally, it draws on a significant pool of local experts to unravel the fascinatingly complex hydrology in Central Asia on the one hand and to study in detail climate impacts there, with a focus on implications for the development of sustainable small-scale hydropower solutions in the highlands there.

As a foundation for the estimation of the small-scale hydropower potential (< 10 MW) in Central Asia, HSOL has worked to retrieve from different archives the locations and streamflow characteristics of close to 300 operational and historic gauges in the river basins (see red dots in Figure 1). Geolocating these was a significant task that required the consultation of different complementary sources. A meticulous workflow was established for cross-validating the identified gauge locations. All this was necessary because no such database exists in the region due to the lack of the tradition to work with geospatial data.

For all gauges, the contributing catchment areas were mapped. Many topographic/land-cover and (bio-)climatological characteristics, as well as information on land ice, are extracted from the latest state-of-the-art data sets. Climate forcing from four CMIP6 models and four scenarios was bias-corrected and downscaled to study in detail the climate impacts in the region and the implications for small-scale hydropower in the mountainous zones. Detailed hydrological studies are carried out at several sites of interest to inform, among other things, the proper dimensioning of the planned hydropower infrastructure and ecological minimum flows (Figure 2).

Finally, HSOL is co-designing with local stakeholders and implementing a water planning and accounting tool for comprehensive quantitative studies of the water, energy and food nexus dimensions in catchments of interest. Once operational in local agencies, this tool has the potential to streamline existing planning and accounting workflows and make them less error-prone and time-consuming, which may also lead to an overall improvement of the allocation of scarce water resources (Figure 3).

This is just the beginning of an exciting journey to further unravel the hydrology of the Central Asian region and to gain a proper, solid understanding of how best to develop the local water resources in a sustainable and ecologically sensitive manner for the ultimate benefit of the local population. Stay tuned for more news on this channel. More information can also be found on the website of hydrosolutions GmbH.

Author: Tobias Siegfried, hydrosolutions GmbH

Partner Description: hydrosolutions GmbH
Website: www.hydrosolutions.ch
LinkedIn: hydrosolutions.ch
Facebook: @hydrosolutions.gmbh
Twitter: @H2O_SOL

In a time where sustainable development and management of the globe’s resources is more important than ever, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) draws upon 150 years of international research and management expertise. Within Hydro4U, BOKU plays a key role in finding sustainable hydropower development solutions in Central Asia’s multidisciplinary and complex environment.

A team of highly motivated researchers from two BOKU institutes – the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and River Research (IWA) and the Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management (IHG) – with profound experience in integrative river basin planning and environmental research is involved in several project tasks. Working with state-of-the-art tools at different spatial scales, the BOKU team will explore the sustainable small-scale hydropower potential and develop decision support tools for the detection of potential sites. BOKU scientists will also conduct extensive field measurements to provide invaluable baseline data for installing the two demo hydropower facilities.

The successful start of BOKU’s project activities – together with its project partners hydrosolutions GmbH (HSOL), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the “Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers” National Research University (TIIAME NRU), and SJE Ecohydraulic Engineering – resulted in a unique geodatabase, currently consisting of over 40 usable spatially relevant data sets assigned to six thematic sectors. This Hydro4U database provides a key starting point and a central element for research questions and project tasks of multiple work packages dealing with the analysis and replication of unexploited small-scale hydropower potential as well as the Water-Food-Energy-Climate nexus. Motivated by this project deliverable’s success, the BOKU team now delves into methodological and conceptional research questions, sustainability assessments and is looking forward to furthering exchange within the project team and the stakeholders, jointly developing sustainable solutions for small-scale hydropower  in Central Asia.

Authors: Beatrice Wagner, Helmut Habersack – BOKU IWA | Daniel S. Hayes – BOKU IHG

Partner Description: BOKU
Website: https://boku.ac.at/en/
Twitter: @BOKUvienna, @BOKU_IHG

SJE Ecohydraulic Engineering GmbH celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2021. Founded in 2001, the company works at the interface between river hydraulics and river ecology. Since then, SJE has been involved in various research projects, while at the same time developing new technologies, in particular modelling tools for eco-hydraulic studies, and applying these new tools to environmental impact assessment, especially with regard to hydropower plants.

In Hydro4U, SJE and its associated partner KJ Consult are responsible for the planning of sustainable small-scale hydropower (SHP) at several demonstration and planning sites. The design and operation strategies of the planned hydropower plant (HPP) will be optimised in order to minimise environmental impacts. Main aspects considered are e.g.

• riverine habitats upstream and downstream of the HPP sites and potential compensatory measures to support river ecology,
• environmental flows to be released to ensure good ecological conditions for aquatic organisms in all seasons,
• the optimised operation of turbines to prevent rapid flow changes and
• the design of upstream and downstream migration facilities integrating telemetry studies and innovative modelling (using tools developed in the H2020 project FIThydro).

To reach the goal of implementing environmentally friendly hydropower, SJE closely cooperates with local experts (Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers, Uzbekistan) as well as with renowned European partners (BOKU Vienna, Austria and EVINBO Brussels, Belgium) integrating knowledge in fish ecology, water quality, sampling and tracking technologies, environmental hydraulics and hydrology. The fish species caught by the local fish ecology expert in the area of the potential HPP sites that could serve as indicators for river ecology are snow trout (Schizothorax sp., first picture) and a genus of stone loach (Nemacheilus sp., second picture). Their habitat requirements serve as input for habitat investigations, carried out using the SJE software CASiMiR (www.casimir-software.de) for environmental flow setting.

Authors: Matthias Schneider, SJE Ecohydraulic Engineering GmbH

Photo credits: Bakhtiyor Karimov, Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers