Dear reader,

we hope that you, your families and friends are all safe and in good health.

It is a pleasure for me to introduce the HYPOSO newsletter with updates about the project, an outlook on future project activities, an interview, and results coming from a European partner project.

Within HYPOSO, we work on two major objectives, to stimulate the energy transition in developing and emerging countries (together with our partners in Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador in Latin America, and in Cameroon and Uganda in Africa), and to support of the European hydropower industry. Therefore, different tools were and will be developed.

In this newsletter, besides an update on project activities, we like to draw the attention to  two outcomes of HYPOSO, the set of reports on framework conditions in the HYPOSO target countries, indispensable information for stakeholders before investments or other work activities are started, as well as the HYPOSO Platform, a password secured online forum, set up for stakeholders from the HYPOSO target countries and from Europe and meant to facilitate making business together. Dan Marlone Nabutsabi (HPAU LEAR, and HPAU HYPOSO Project Manager), from the Hydropower Association of Uganda will share his point of view on the hydro business. Finally, results from the HydroFlex project are presented.

For more information about HYPOSO, please refer to our website, follow our twitter account (@HyposoEU), join the HYPOSO LinkedIn group for discussions, and subscribe to HYPOSO's newsletter. We would appreciate it, if you forward our newsletter to colleagues and other interested persons.

On behalf of the HYPOSO team

Ingo Ball
HYPOSO Coordinator

As much of the world, also the HYPOSO project activities were considerably affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Our onsite activities, as well as events like capacity building courses or framework condition workshops had to be cancelled and replanned several times. We had to ask the European Commission to extend the project duration so that we can fulfill our scheduled activities. We were given additional 9 months to comply our planned work (project runtime is now 45 months until May 2023) and we are now carefully optimistic that things will slowly normalize.

Our project partners from Frosio Next (Italy) and IMP Pan (Poland) are at the ready to start onsite measurements in Uganda and Cameroon, once the development of the pandemic will allow  that the activities can be carried out safely. The case studies will be made public to HYPOSO stakeholders from the coming year on. The capacity building courses, and the framework condition workshops have already been prepared and wait for safer conditions to being implemented. We’ll inform on the project’s website about the developments.

The next occasions to get updates about the HYPOSO project will be in October this year, at HYDROFORUM in Gdansk, Poland, and at HYDRO 2021, in Strasbourg, France.

Before investing in countries that are unknown to them, hydropower stakeholders need to know about the specific framework conditions in these countries. Within HYPOSO, the project partners from Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador in Latin America, and from Cameroon and Uganda in Africa have worked on a dedicated report to inform interested stakeholders about the conditions in their home countries. They analysed the political, legal, financial and educational framework as well as financing opportunities for prospective hydropower. The report is structuredas follows:

The report is available as one compiled report, as well as single reports. You can find all versions here.
 

The HYPOSO Platform is an exclusive, password-secured online forum for hydropower stakeholders and was developed to enable also smaller companies and organisations to make direct contacts and facilitate business relations with each other. It is necessary to register for the HYPOSO Platform to use its full functionality. For the duration of the HYPOSO project, access is limited to companies/organisations from Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador in Latin America, and from Cameroon and Uganda in Africa, as well as from European countries. HYPOSO Platform members are classified in accordance to their business focus along the small hydropower (SHP) value chain. The image below gives a first impression what to expect from the HYPOSO Platform.
 

 
Register now for the HYPOSO Platform for free!

Dan Marlone Nabutsabi, Vice Chairman from the Hydropower Association of Uganda (HPAU) and HYPOSO Project Manager shares his point of view on the hydro business, and the perspectives for Uganda.

HYPOSO:
Please tell us about the background of your organisation and your role in the HYPOSO project.

D.M. Nabutsabi:
"Hydro Power Association of Uganda (HPAU) Ltd. is a not-for-profit organisation, formed and duly incorporated in Uganda on June 10th, 2014, as a company limited by guarantee. HPAU seeks to contribute to the national, regional and global development and sound management of hydropower resources for sustainable access to energy for improved socio-economic progress…."
 

HydroFlex is a European research project, financed by EUs Horizon 2020 program. The project is a joint effort of 16 research and industry partners from five European countries. HydroFlex aims to develop hydropower technology permitting 30 start stops per day and faster ramping rate. More specifically, the project comprises a work package developing Francis turbine design for variable speed operation and larger operating range (WP3) and a work package investigating flexibility of generator and converter (WP4).