{"id":115395,"date":"2023-07-10T07:58:52","date_gmt":"2023-07-10T04:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/climate-change-challenges-hydropower-dependent-austria\/"},"modified":"2023-07-10T07:58:52","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T04:58:52","slug":"climate-change-challenges-hydropower-dependent-austria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/climate-change-challenges-hydropower-dependent-austria\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change challenges hydropower-dependent Austria"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115395\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\nHigh in the Austrian Alps, hundreds of construction workers toil in a huge underground project aimed at storing hydropower as climate change has reduced the country\u2019s water-dependent electricity production. Austria draws more than 60 percent of its electricity output from the renewable energy source, compared to a global average of 16 percent, with more than 3,100 dams spread across its rivers. But the amount of electricity generated through hydropower in the European Union country is down \u2014 from some 45 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2020 to 42 TWh in 2021 \u2014 as water levels are falling. For the first time last year, Austria \u2014 which also still relies heavily on Russian gas \u2014 had to import electricity, ringing alarm bells.<\/p>\n<p>Inside the snow-capped mountain range, above the Austrian village of Kaprun in the Salzburg region, trucks thunder in and out of the vast subterranean construction site, which is dotted with statues of Saint Barbara, patron of miners and others plying dangerous trades. The plant is to be operational by 2025 to store power in order to cater to peaks in electricity consumption and mitigate a change in weather patterns, including increasingly capricious and irregular rainfall. \u201cWe want to be prepared well,\u201d said Klaus Hebenstreit, an executive of main electricity producer Verbund.\u201cThe distribution (of water) over the year will change: we will have less water in summer (due to drought) and more in winter\u201d due to snow melt, he added.<\/p>\n<p>Two years of drought have hit Austria, like the rest of Europe, according to Roman Neunteufel, a senior researcher at Vienna\u2019s University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences. \u201cIf there are several dry years in a row, then this becomes very noticeable\u2026 Water levels have never been lower since records began\u201d some 100 years ago, he said. Europe should brace for more deadly heatwaves driven by climate change, said a report last month by the World Meteorological Organization and the European Union\u2019s Copernicus Climate Change Service.<\/p>\n<p>The report noted the world\u2019s fastest-warming continent was some 2.3 degrees Celsius hotter last year than in pre-industrial times. In the Alps, glaciers saw a new record mass loss for a single year in 2022, caused by very low winter levels of snow, a hot summer as well as deposits of wind-blown Saharan dust.<\/p>\n<p>Verbund, a semi-public company, continues to pour billions of euros into hydropower generation despite criticism from activists who say the dams and plants have a big impact on the environment. \u201cHydropower expansion must be ecologically and socially compatible\u2026. The complete expansion of hydropower is not the solution to our energy problem. Instead, it is necessary to save energy,\u201d the Word Wildlife Fund says on its site.<\/p>\n<p>Verbund is looking at alternatives. \u201cWater will continue to be extremely important for us, but we also want to develop photovoltaic and wind energy\u2026 We are diversifying,\u201d Hebenstreit told AFP in Vienna on a day temperatures soared to 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit).<\/p>\n<p>Austria, which aims to draw all of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030, has been slow to develop wind and solar power, which make up only 13 percent of its electricity. \u201cSolar energy is wonderfully abundant in summer\u2026 But production is too low in winter, precisely when we need it for heating,\u201d Neunteufel said. \u201cAnd with wind, it\u2019s even harder to plan: There can be days any time without wind, and then wind power production largely stops,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.digitaljournal.com\/world\/climate-change-challenges-hydropower-dependent-austria\/article\">DJ<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/environmental-news-en\/climate-change-challenges-hydropower-dependent-austria\/\">Climate change challenges hydropower-dependent Austria<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[2743,2663,516,612,575],"class_list":["post-115395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-austria","tag-challenge","tag-change","tag-climate","tag-environmental-news-en"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}