2025: Modernizing Existing Dams to Meet Energy and Environmental Objectives in the Western Balkans (TNC)
As Western Balkan countries work to decarbonize their economies, solar and wind energy are projected to grow rapidly. Aging hydropower plants in the Western Balkans will also be needed to stabilize the grid when solar and wind output is low; however, many of these facilities lack modern environmental safeguards to minimize disruptions to fish migration, natural flow regimes, and sediment transport, with serious consequences for freshwater biodiversity. This collaborative project between Cornell University and The Nature Conservancy researchers will assess how much of the existing fleet can be modernized to meet both energy balancing needs and contemporary environmental objectives. By integrating repowering and retrofitting scenarios, researchers aim to quantify trade-offs between energy generation, biodiversity protection, and projected costs.
Cornell: Alexander Flecker (Cornell CALS/Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) and Carla Gomes (Bowers College of Computing and Information Science)
TNC: Katie Kennedy, Tara Moberg, Mate Zec, Igor Vejnovic
Collaborators: Rafael M. Almeida (Indiana University and former Cornell Atkinson Postdoc)