Climate Changed

Climate Change Wreaking Havoc on the World's Hydropower Plants

  • Statkraft doubled its spending on strengthening dams
  • Water levels at some North American hydro plants are high
A hydropower station on the Yenisey river near Sayanogorsk, Russia.

Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

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Climate change is hard to ignore when you’re in the hydropower business, said Christian Rynning-Tonnesen, chief of Norway’s largest power producer.

“The general trend all over the world is areas that are dry become more dry and areas that are wet become more wet,” Rynning-Tonnesen, chief executive officer of the renewable electricity generator Statkraft AS, said in an interview in New York on Thursday.