IT IS a thrill trekking beside the upper Marsyangdi river in northern Nepal. On view are spectacular waterfalls and cliffs, snowy Himalayan peaks, exotic birds and butterflies. But just where tourists and villagers delight in nature, hydropower engineers and economists have long been frustrated; in such torrents they see an opportunity that for too long has been allowed to drain away. Himalayan rivers, fed ...

Nepal and India signed a deal on Tuesday (Nov 25) to build a US$1-billion hydropower plant as Indian premier Narendra Modi began a visit to the impoverished Himalayan nation. The deal allows India's state-owned company Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam to construct a 900-megawatt hydropower project on Nepal's Arun river, with electricity expected to be generated from 2021. The two energy-hungry countries both suffer ...

Figures from a new database on sustainable energy production indicate that global hydropower output is set to double on the back of a boom in dam building throughout the developing world. The study, led by Dr. Christiane Zarfl at the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) in Berlin, found that rising demand for clean energy from renewable sources has prompted a surge in hydropowe ...

LAOTIAN hydropower company EDL-Generation plans to invest US$1 billion (Bt32 billion) between 2015 and 2020 to boost production capacity from 881 megawatts to 2,272MW. To raise Bt6.5 billion of that, EDL-Gen will issue debentures in Thailand's capital market next month. The debentures will have tenors of five to 10 years with interest rates of 5-5.5 per cent per annum, the company's deputy managing director ...

Engineers are planning a long awaited upgrade of the biggest hydro-electric plant in Afghanistan. Improving power output was supposed to be a priority for NATO and the US government, but work stalled six years ago. Now the Afghan government has taken up the project ...

Hydropower, the renewable technology that sets gravity to work and harnesses the energy of rivers, is about to double its output. The growth will be mostly in the developing world—but the construction of new dams on rivers in South America, South-east Asia and Africa comes at a cost. Around a fifth of the world’s largest remaining free-flowing rivers will be dammed, which presents yet another threat to the ...

Alstom was awarded a contract worth €57 million1 by The Hainan Pumped Storage Power Generation Co. Ltd. to equip Hainan Province’s first pumped storage power station. Alstom will provide three 200 MW units - pump turbine, motor generator with other key equipment - to the 600 MW new plant. The first unit is due to enter commercial operation on Dec, 2017. Invested by China Southern Power Grid (CSG), Hainan Qi ...

- Laos plans to quadruple its hydropower generation capacity from current levels by the end of the decade and step up electricity exports to its neighbouring countries, its vice minister of energy and mines said on Tuesday. Laos is among Asia's poorest countries but has big ambitions to become the "Battery of Southeast Asia" by exporting power generated from its ample water resources. The country shares bor ...

Engineering and construction company Black & Veatch has opened a Hydropower Centre of Excellence in Singapore in a bid to help countries in the region look at new ways to harness their hydro resources. Southeast Asia is one of the fastest-growing regions in the world, and with the region dependent on oil imports and facing potential natural gas supply shortages, mini, small and mid-scale hydropower have ...

Voith has been awarded a new contract to supply the complete electromechanical equipment for a pumped storage power plant in Thailand. The order for the extension of the Lam Ta Khong hydropower plant includes the supply of two motor-generators, two 255 MW vertical pump turbines, the automation systems as well as the electrical and mechanical balance-of-plant systems. The contract has been awarded by the Ele ...