World Water Day 2022 - The Legacy of Erin Brockovich

“When it comes to the groundwater contamination and the poisoning of people I see, it's a moral issue. Nobody's ever gonna convince me that a CEO wouldn't care if his own child was poisoned.” Erin Brockovich once said that.?When I saw that this year's World Water Day theme is dedicated to groundwater, I thought of this story and the movie adaptation for which Julia Roberts won an Academy Award. A paralegal, Erin dedicated herself to fighting groundwater pollution in Hinkley, California, in the 1990s - becoming an icon in the fight for water purity and, by extension, our environment. Yes, her quote is very close to my heart. As a representative of the hydropower industry, I simply consider protecting groundwater as our obligation. Especially as we provide the technologies that help ensure irrigation for farmland around the world, keep our groundwater in balance, mitigate the effects of droughts, and, of course, ensure that drinking water is delivered to the most remote corners of the world. I am thinking of the Angat hydropower plant in the Philippines, which provides more than 90 percent of the drinking water needs in the capital Manila, or the Beni Haroun pumped storage station in Algeria, which sends several billion liters of water to the six regions in eastern Algeria as drinking water but also ensures the irrigation of crops in the hot, dry summer months. Dear Erin, I assure you that as CEO of GE Hydro Solutions, I feel the moral obligation to manage groundwater as a key priority of our business and our technologies!

The Alarm Bells are ringing loud and clear

Erin's story inspires me greatly in other ways as well. It is her resilience in dealing with institutions, her energy that drives her on her way through the regulatory jungle, her power to convince others to join her fight - all this I feel is a role model for all of us in 2022. A role model for how each of us should strive to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and thus make our contribution in the fight against climate change. Don't we need this courage and drive now more than ever? The alarm bells are ringing , we all hear them. On the one hand, we are feeling these days how fragile the supplies of fossil fuels like gas, oil and coal can be. On the other hand, we saw last year’s forest fires and heat waves on an unprecedented scale in Australia, Canada and the USA, devastating floods in Germany, China and now again in Australia. All this shows us that we cannot decarbonize fast enough. We know that we need to halve CO2 emissions by 2030 to limit the temperature rise to 1.5°C. We know that to do that, we need to effectively double hydropower capacity. We know that hydropower is the forgotten giant of the clean energy transition, and we know that the lack of investment in needed hydro storage capacities is the ignored crisis within the climate crisis.?We know all of that.?

Blackout? Hydropower!

Yes, we have made progress. The results of COP26 certainly give me hope that we are ready for the necessary changes to our energy system. And yet, just the last few days and galloping energy prices around the world have proven that we can't wait another day. The necessary investments in hydropower must be decided TODAY! Not only does hydropower play a critical role in mitigating climate change, no, it also contributes to the security of energy supply by providing firm capacity with a very low carbon footprint. If you want to think renewables on a large scale, you cannot do it without hydropower. It is the first source of flexibility, already providing more than 30% of the world's flexible energy supply capacity. It is as simple as that. When the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow, we have 3 options:

Carbon based power production – Blackout - Hydropower

Just the last few days have tragically shown us that we not only need to significantly accelerate the path of decarbonization. At the same time, we need to secure energy supply independence. Hydropower and the local availability of water as an energy source is what limits dependence on others, on fossil fuels and also on electricity price increases, while guaranteeing grid stability. With hydropower, we have a tool in our hands that is crucial as no country in the world has come even close to the goal of 100% renewables without hydropower in the energy mix. And the good thing is - we don’t need to wait for some unknown technology to emerge.?The technology is mature and available! Available for 140 years when the first hydroelectric power station began operating September 30, 1882, in Appleton, USA.

If countries want to prevent the risk of a future blackout, it is obvious what needs to be done. Just look at Europe that has over 57 GW of existing pumped hydro storage capacity. However, most of the continent’s hydropower fleet is ageing (more than 50% are older than 40 years).?As the former Australian prime minister and Co-Chair of the International Pumped Hydro Storage Forum, Malcolm Turnbull, pointed out in an article in the German “Tagesspiegel”, just the modernization of existing plants to improve capacity and flexibility would be a first and very simple frontload investment to accelerate renewables and energy savings.

Now is the time for policymakers everywhere to make the argument for hydropower, alongside wind and solar power. Climate change and security of energy supply require decisions today, not tomorrow. That's why we at GE Hydro Solutions are participating in the new campaign "WE CAN, WITH HYDROPOWER”. Yes, all of us who believe in our future generation should shout out this "WE CAN, WITH HYDROPOWER" with all our might! And we should shout it until we have put enough renewable power in place to safely say we have now mitigated climate change, just like Erin did for her cause on groundwater!

Take care and stay safe,

Pascal