Hydropower

The Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) provides green financing targeted at small and medium-sized projects with tangible, positive environmental impacts in the Nordic region – and in particular the Baltic Sea. Through its extensive fund management, activities in the Arctic and Barents regions have been added and NEFCO has developed into a financial institution supporting Green Growth and the Climate globally. 

IIGE is a research institute that promotes development, innovation and transmission of technology focused on energy efficiency and renewable energy. The institute aims to contribute to the sustainable development of the Ecuadorian society, through the implementation of energy efficient and energy renewable policies and projects.

Perspectives Climate Group develops policy instruments for GHG mitigation for NAMAs and NDCs as well as support services for GHG mitigation projects under market mechanisms, with activities in over 40 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. Perspectives supports design of mitigation documentation for efficiency in power plants, industrial boilers, and buildings, as well as municipal waste management, waste-water, renewable energy and demand-side energy efficiency. Perspectives is specialized in methodologies for baselines under market mechanisms and supporting access to climate finance.

The Global Environment Centre Foundation (GEC) is an entity that supports the UNEP’s International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC), based in Japan. GEC is dedicated to the transfer of environmentally sound technologies, in both developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The foundation aims to contribute to Japan’s international efforts on the environment, sharing project collaborations as well as promoting Japan’s rich conservation knowledge and experience in developing nations.

Energy is vital to the global food system and food security, but countries will need to explore greener energy paths to address climate change. Opportunities for achieving both green energy and food security goals include solar and hydropower in Africa, biofuels in poor countries, and energy-saving cookstoves.

Pöyry Austria GmbH, a member of the global Pöyry Group, is a consulting and engineering company with deep expertise with extensive local knowledge to deliver sustainable project investments. For instance, its Hydro Consulting department delivers services in the fields of hydrological and hydraulic modellingand forecasting. Its experts have significant experience in the fields of hydro-meteorology, climate change and climate sensitivity. They also contribute to assess climate risk and ctimate adaptation measures for hydropower and all other sectors of water management.

South Pole is a leading provider of global sustainability services, with more than 300 experts in over 18 offices worldwide. For more than a decade, South Pole has worked with a wide range of public, private and civil sector organisations to accelerate the transition to a climate-smart society. South Pole has mobilised climate finance to over 700 projects in the areas of emission reductions, renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable land-use.

Background: Current inverters for solar power systems are prone to failure and the leading cause of malfunction in solar systems. It is desirable to use transformer-less topologies that are more reliable and longer lasting. Using inverters that do not contain transformers results in higher efficiencies significantly lower size weight cost and complexity. Many transformer-less inverters face the problem of large capacitive ground currents impeding the flow of electrons through the system.

Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH) is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing. The method stores energy in the form of gravitational potential energy of water, pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation. Low-cost off-peak electric power is used to run the pumps. During periods of high electrical demand, the stored water is released through turbines to produce electric power.

The key challenges facing Africa’s power sector are inadequate generation capacity, limited electrification, low power consumption, unreliable services, high costs, and a financing gap of approximately $23 billion a year, according to the authors of this policy brief. They argue these challenges call for a paradigm shift in the development of the power sector that seeks to use the considerable renewable resources of the continent, including hydropower and geothermal power.