Hydropower Industry Bracing For A World Without Glaciers - Reuters

[hatrack]

EDIT

A study by Lausanne's EPFL technical university forecast a decline to 46 percent by 2035 for hydro from around 60 percent now as precipitation declines and total energy use increases. In the same way as the Himalayas are "Asia's water-tower," Switzerland is the source of Europe's biggest rivers, supporting agriculture and waterways, and cooling nuclear power stations.

Water trickles down white-blue crevasses and ice cracks and creaks as Bauder, who for Zurich technical university spends about 20 to 30 days a year working on Swiss glaciers, explains that most of the mighty Rhone glacier will be gone by the end of the century. "Nature can adjust to the circumstances," he said. "It's just people who are much more fragile about living conditions."

More than a billion people worldwide live in river basins fed by glacier or snowmelt. Glaciers have been retreating dramatically since the end of the Little Ice Age in the 19th century, particularly in the Himalayas where they feed rivers including the Mekong and Yangtze and ensure water and power for fast-growing economies.

A lack of water for hydropower is already "critical" in Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador, according to the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which also sees risks to water supplies to southern California from the loss of the Sierra Nevada and Colorado River basin snowpack. In Europe, 20 percent of electricity comes from hydro -- generating potential that is projected to decrease by the 2070s, falling sharpest in the Mediterranean.

EDIT

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE59L05Z20091022?sp=true

[NickB79]

1. And there goes the largest source of renewable energy we currently have

Better start building more wind turbines, fast, but don't count on hydro backup to balance out lulls in the wind.

[Gregorian]

2. They'll need to build dams, which take a crapload of petroleum.

And when they're done, there will be more people using more power, and they'll need more dams. It's almost comical to watch. But sad. Like the monkey with it's hand in a coconut.

There is a simple solution, but no one is willing to really discuss it. No one.