Focus Area Water and Energy Security

There is currently one Subprogramme under the Focus Area “Water and Energy Security”: The project “Sustainable Hydropower Use and Integration in China and Europe” (SHUI-ChE)[1]. The SHUI-ChE project is a four-year (2018-2021) project implemented with support from EU’s Partnership Instrument.

The SHUI-ChE project aims to develop and enhance co-generation and exchange of knowledge by synthesizing and sharing experiences and best practices between EU and China within four different thematic focus areas that cover both the “green” and “blue” dimension of sustainable hydropower:

  1. Green standards on hydropower – from regulation to practice (Green dimension)
  2. Operational schemes for optimizing the efficiency of small hydropower (Green dimension)
  3. Pumped Storage Hydropower and comprehensive cost and benefit assessment (Blue dimension)
  4. Hydropower as an enabler for promoting regional energy cooperation and market integration of renewable energy in clean energy transition and low carbon development

In addition, the SHUI-ChE project also aims to establish an EU-China Sustainable Hydropower Innovation Network (ECSHIN) as a facilitating platform to enhance EU-China cooperation through:

  1. Exchange among relevant cross-sectorial stakeholders in EU and China, including governments, international organization, research communities and businesses;
  2. Development of innovation and business activities in the water-energy sector;
  3. Promotion of the “Source to Sea” concept and its potential application in EU and China.

The SHUI-ChE Project EU Consortia is led by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM) and consists of the following co-partners:  

  1. Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Sweden
  2. University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management (BOKU), Austria
  3. University of Florence, Research Centre for Alternative and Renewable Energies, Italy
  4. Federal Ministry of Sustainability and Tourism (BMNT), Austria

SWaM is also the leading partner on the European side for the Focus Area “Water and Energy Security”.

The leading and organizing partner in China for both the “Water and Energy Security” Focus Area and SHUI-ChE project is the Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute (NHRI) under the Ministry of Water Resources, National Energy Administration, and the Ministry of Transport of China. In addition, there are many other Chinese partners involved in the Focus Area/SHUI-ChE project, such as:

  • The International Center of Small Hydropower (ICSHP)
  • National Research Center for Sustainable Hydropower
  • Hangzhou Regional Center (Asia-Pacific) for Small Hydro Power (HRC)
  • Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute (CRSRI)
  • Beijing Normal University (BNU)

Focus Area and SHUI-ChE Contact Persons 

 

[1] SHUI-ChE (水车) means “water wheel” in Chinese – a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power.