When the wind drops or clouds block the sun, Europe\u2019s electricity system needs other sources of energy that can respond to changing demand. Hydropower can play an important role here. Hydropower plants can increase or lower output as demand shifts, while some can store water to generate electricity later, when it is needed most.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When the wind drops or clouds block the sun, Europe\u2019s electricity system needs other sources of energy that can respond to changing demand. Hydropower can play an important role here. Hydropower plants can increase or lower output as demand shifts, while some can store water to generate electricity later, when it is needed most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"gravitec_meta_box_implemented":[""],"send_gravitec_push":[""],"_aft_read_time":["1"],"gss_source_name":["Horizon Magazine"],"gss_ca_code":[""],"gss_source_type":["EU institution"],"gss_source_url":["https:\/\/projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu\/en\/horizon-magazine\/digital-tools-help-hydropower-plants-respect-nature-while-generating-energy"],"gss_original_date":["2026-10-27"],"gss_original_author":[""],"gss_licence":["CC BY 4.0"],"gss_credit_line":["This article was originally published in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine."],"gss_image_url":["https:\/\/projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/field\/image\/shutterstock_2694027265_cropped.jpg"],"gss_display_mode":["excerpt"],"gss_oecd_field":["Engineering and technology"],"gss_import_id":["u-f4fa79b11418dcd15676025ee22a6aa8"],"gss_imported_at":["2026-10-30 01:06:28"],"gss_source_id":["3812"],"gss_image_note":["The source is set to use the default image"],"gss_approved_by":["7"],"gss_approved_at":["2026-11-02 08:26:10"],"_wp_old_date":["2026-10-30"],"gss_views":["2"],"_elementor_page_assets":["a:0:{}"]},"categories":[69],"tags":[144],"class_list":["post-3988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-engineering-technology","tag-horizon-magazine"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/news-2.png",1585,992,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/news-2-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/news-2-300x188.png",300,188,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/news-2-768x481.png",640,401,true],"large":["https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/news-2-1024x641.png",640,401,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/news-2-1536x961.png",1536,961,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/news-2.png",1585,992,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/news-2-825x575.png",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/news-2-590x410.png",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"GSS News","author_link":"https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/author\/gss-news\/"},"category_info":"Engineering and technology<\/a>","tag_info":"Engineering and technology","comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4063,"href":"https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988\/revisions\/4063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gss.cost-action.eu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}