Planning future reservoirs: a new tool for designing low-carbon hydropower
19 January 2026
A new paper introduces a novel, automated and transparent framework for assessing hydropower reservoir emissions, supporting spatially explicit emissions modelling in energy planning.
The paper developed a new framework that combines three innovations. Read the research paper.
First, we automated the process of collecting the input data required to estimate the emission footprint of reservoirs, following the modelling approach used in the GHG Reservoir (G-res) Tool. Second, we developed a free, open-source implementation of the G-res model, enhanced with new modules for estimating CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O emissions. We then made these complex models transparent using explainable artificial intelligence (xAI). Read the blog to find out why it matters.
The Myanmar case study shows that by incorporating emissions into planning from the start, same energy output could have been achieved with just 3 gCO₂e/kWh, eliminated nearly one MtCO₂e per year, conserved 239 km² of forest and farmland, and reduced river fragmentation by reducing the number of barriers in lower river reaches from 28 to 7. This is a major step toward truly low-carbon hydropower planning anywhere in the world.