HERI – Research Organisations Database

Support the future of renewable energy, innovation, decarbonization, and the energy transition.
With a team of energy consultants, engineers, and experts, we support our members and different companies or investors in:
Market & Regulation
Energy project feasibility studies
Advocacy Governance & Regulation
Energy Project Development and Management
TSO and DSO infrastructure
Energy events management

Compagnie Nationale du Rhône (CNR) is France’s leading producer of 100% renewable electricity with a total installed capacity of 4GW (3.1GW of hydro, 735MW of wind and 135MW of solar). CNR manages the Rhône river with 19 run-of-river multipurpose assets (navigation, irrigation, hydropower generation). It has expertise in hydraulic management of river systems and O&M, among others. It also has strong competencies in ecological restoration of rivers. Besides, CNR carries out missions of general interests to develop the territories. It also innovates to optimise its practices in renewable energies such as hydrogen, battery storage systems and flexibility, floating PV, agriPV and osmotic energy.

EPFL is Europe’s most cosmopolitan technical university. It welcomes students, professors and collaborators of more than 120 nationalities. EPFL has both a Swiss and international vocation and focuses on three missions: teaching, research and innovation. EPFL collaborates with an important network of partners, including other universities and colleges, secondary schools and gymnasiums, industry and the economy, political circles and the general public, with the aim of having a real impact on society.

EDF (Electricite de France) is one of the largest power Utility in Europe. As regard to Hydropower, it owns and operates a fleet of more than 20,000 MW Hydro domestic capacity in France, including 430 power stations, more than 240 large dams, and one of the largest tidal range power plant at la Rance.
R&D and Engineering teams of EDF group are very active in all fields of research and innovation areas related to hydropower : civil engineering, dam safety, mechanics, hydraulics, hydrology, environment and river/ocean ecology, sustainability, electro-technics, economy and markets, SCADA, digitalization ... covering the whole life cycle of hydropower assets : design, construction, refurbishment, operation and maintenance, decommissiong. R&I activity.
These teams are closely connected to research partners in France, Europe and worlwide. EDF Hydro research teams are also involved in many R&I projects in France and Europe.

Our research addresses the greatest challenges of the future: keeping societies healthy, fostering intact environments, promoting sustainable energy and developing well-functioning political and social systems. Seeking answers through interaction between a variety of disciplines, we develop concrete solutions for regional problems which can then be applied globally. We continually strive to open new paths with science and innovation, by responding to society’s complex questions with answers geared to the needs of people.

Hydro Alps is an applied research and development laboratory specializing in improving the monitoring and production of Alpine high-pressure and run-of-river power plants.

The International Hydropower Association (IHA) is a non-profit membership organisation and the global voice for sustainable hydropower.

As an association, we believe that all new hydropower projects should be developed and operated responsibly and sustainably.

IHA's mission is to advance sustainable hydropower by building and sharing knowledge on its role in renewable energy systems, responsible freshwater management and climate change solutions.

We seek to deliver on our mission through advocacy, research and policy initiatives and championing sustainable good practices.

Encompassing over 100 organisations operating in more than 120 countries, IHA's members include the world's leading hydropower developers, operators and manufacturers committed to the delivery of sustainable hydropower under the guidelines of the San Jose Declaration.

The Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre (LVGMC) is a state-owned research and service institution responsible for environmental monitoring, hydrology, meteorology, and climate services in Latvia. The centre provides data collection, modelling, and analysis related to water systems, including river flow monitoring, flood forecasting, and climate impact assessments. LVGMC supports national policy, environmental protection, and risk management through applied research and operational services, including hydrological modelling, early warning systems, and long-term environmental data management.

NTNU, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, is a university with a main profile in science and technology. With more than 40 000 students and 7 100 employees, it is Norway’s largest university. NTNU has four strategic areas of research in 2014-2023: sustainability, energy, oceans and health. As a supplier of high quality graduates, NTNU has a broad range of contacts with the industry. The annual budget of NTNU is around € 950 million. Four departments from NTNU are involved in the HydroFlex project.

The Department of Energy and Process Engineering at NTNU is an international driving force within education and research on the total energy chain from resource to customer. The focus is how to produce energy, which can be used by man and machine in a sustainable way, taking into consideration health, climate changes and available resources. One of the department’s principal focus areas is hydropower research, where most of the activity takes place in the Waterpower Laboratory, which combines 100 years of experience with state-of-the-art facilities that are unique in Europe. It plays a leading role in the development of global hydropower, including efficient design of hydro turbines.

The Department of Electric Power Engineering at NTNU covers the broad interdisciplinary aspects of power engineering in its research and education: generation, transmission, conversion and the use of electric energy, including the accompanying techno-economic aspects. Its mission is to contribute to the fundamental and applied knowledge of electric power engineering, and to develop technology and systems for the planning, operation and maintenance of efficient, sustainable energy systems.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at NTNU provides competence and technological solutions within our areas of expertise for application in both the public and private sectors. Students and researchers graduating from our programs provide our partners with expertise and skills in the areas of civil and transportation engineering, structural engineering, water and wastewater engineering, and hydraulic engineering.

The Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at NTNU has broad interdisciplinary expertise in the fields of logistics, machine design, product development, materials science and risk and reliability of complex systems. The research at the department focuses on development, optimisation and improvement of industrial processes and production systems. One of our goals is to secure the Norwegian industry and administration with access to knowledge and expertise on an international level.

RSE carries out analysis, studies and research activities, applied to the energy sector as a whole. The big challenges and innovations stemming from advancements in the sustainable generation, distribution and storage of electrical energy, sustainable mobility and the flexibility and resilience of the energy systems provide the subject matter for RSE’s projects. RSE carries out them through a broader perspective that encopasses system scenarios, in line with the goals of the national energy policy and EU Energy Programmes. The results of RSE’s research activities are available to the full range of stakeholders in the energy field, thus being shared for the benefit of companies, market operators and citizens. RSE spans its research activity through four departments which cover the different topics of the energetic system: Materials and Generation Technologies Department (TGM); Transmission and Distribution Technologies Department (TTD); Energy Systems Development Department (SSE); Sustainable Development and Energy Sources Department (SFE). This promotes a strong interconnection between the technological (TGM and TTD) and systemic approach (SSE and SFE).

Description here

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) ranks among Europe’s most outstanding universities in research and innovation – an achievement powered by its distinctive character as an entrepreneurial university. The university is characterised by a unique profile with its core domains natural sciences, engineering, life sciences and medicine.

The Chair of Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineering of TUM has broad experience in hydropower, sediment transport, sediment management, river morphology, habitat modelling and flood management control. It was involved in various hydropower investigations mainly by doing physical or numerical model test.

Delft University of Technology is the oldest, largest and most comprehensive university of technology in The Netherlands. With over 20,000 students and 2,500 scientists (including 400 full professors), it is an establishment of national importance and of significant international standing. The University collaborates on a structural basis with other international education and research institutes and has partnerships with governments, branch organizations, numerous consultancies, industry partners and companies from the small and medium business sectors.
The Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences (CEG) comprises over 500 full time equivalent permanent scientific staff, over 180 PhD students, and over 3500 bachelor and master students. Currently, research and education are organized in seven departments: Engineering Structures, Geoscience & Engineering, Geoscience & Remote Sensing, Hydraulic Engineering, Materials, Mechanics, Management & Design, Transport & Planning, and Water management. TU Delft’s Faculty of Civil Engineering ranks 4th in the 2019 World University QS rankings.

The department Hydraulic Engineering does research and education and develops technology for the themes: coasts, rivers, dredging, hydraulic structures, floods and environmental fluid mechanics. The section on hydraulic structures focuses on the design and construction of levees, dams, locks, storm surge barriers, weirs, quay walls, tunnels and other hydraulic structures. Knowledge is developed on geotechnical and hydraulic aspects, as well as materials and resilience engineering. Probabilistic and structural dynamic analyses and experiments are often applied methods.

Turbulent aims to provide even the most remote communities of the world with reliable and affordable energy. We’ve developed a special kind of Vortex Turbine that generates low cost electricity, without the ecological impact, without large civil works, and without the high upfront investment cost. Turbulent’s environmentally friendly hydropower technology (no dams !) is an ideal match for VRE (Variable Renewable Energy), offering continuous electricity 24/7/365 in mini-grids and micro-grids, even featuring dispatchability. Turbulent safely powers critical healthcare infrastructure, telecom, schools, villages, businesses … on a continuous basis, in combination with new (solar) and existing installations.

Turbulent’s R&D has increasingly been focused on the design and development of modular, fish-friendly, submersible vortex generators, making use of small vertical water drops (between 1-5 m), abundant in rivers and canals around the world. With its robust and flood-proof technology, Turbulent moves away from large conventional hydropower with dams and reservoirs, to a sustainable, low-maintenance technology allowing fish, debris and sediments to pass through the installation without impact. Turbulent offers off-grid, micro-grid and on-grid distributed electrification solutions with installed capacities of 15 kW, 30 kW, 50 kW, 70kW per turbine, easily scalable to a combination of multiple turbines to increase capacity.

SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY
River Basin Processes and Management
We provide international leadership in understanding and managing environmental processes and feedbacks that control and link water, sediment, solute and biotic dynamics in river basins, estuaries and marine systems.
We are particularly renowned for our research strengths in peatland science, glacial and ice-marginal systems, hillslope processes, and water resource management.

Our expertise:
Hydrology and hydraulics: Hillslope hydrology, soil water, river hydraulics, shallow groundwater, natural flood management.
Geomorphology: Soil erosion, hillslope and river sediment flux, peatland processes, 3D modelling.
Biogeochemistry: Carbon and nitrogen cycling, metals, emerging contaminants including pharmaceuticals, isotopes.
Aquatic ecosystems: Biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, invasive species, macroinvertebrates, Water Framework Directive (WFD).
Glaciology: Glacier dynamics, glacial landforms, outburst floods, surface energy balance modelling.

As part of water@leeds we develop and use innovative observational science, field and laboratory experiments and modelling approaches in interdisciplinary research projects across the globe.


Ecology and Global Change
Working in biomes across the world from tropical rain forests to Arctic tundra, the Ecology and Global Change (EGC) group aims to determine the nature of environmental change at a range of temporal and spatial scales. EGC has made major advances in understanding the sensitivity of vegetation to orbital millennial scale climate forcing, carbon cycling in tropical forests and ecohydrological responses of peatlands to past climate change.

One of our key research areas has been the global monitoring of forests by setting up and leading international projects RAINFOR, FORESTPLOTS, AFRITRON, AMAZONICA and TForces. As a result, our work has made important contributions to both international and national climate and environmental management policy agendas.

Our research:
Ecosystems and evolution
Understanding ecological patterns of diversity, composition and ecosystem function in time and space
Quantifying the magnitude, rate and timing of ecosystem response to current and future climate change
Identifying the drivers of evolution in tropical ecosystems

Palaeoecology, palaeoclimate and chronostratigraphy
Understanding the nature and timing of climatic and environmental changes over millennial to decadal timescales
Quantifying past human impact on ecosystems
Examining the long-term ecohydrological dynamics of peatland environments
Developing high-resolution chronologies of past environmental change

Biogeochemical cycles
Analysing regional and global CO2 records to identify trends and the onset of feedbacks in the coupled climate-carbon cycle system
Dynamic vegetation modelling to predict the response of land vegetation to climate change
Analysing recent changes in the tropical hydrological cycle and plant functioning using tree ring isotopes
Analysing and modelling soil development
Understanding the importance of soil physical and chemical properties to ecosystem function in the tropics

Global environmental science
Designing and implementing measurement schemes to characterise and reduce global environmental uncertainties
Assessing dryland degradation and the sustainability of environmental management
Modelling long-term trends in national land use and land cover
Managing multiple ecosystem services
Communicating science concerning global environmental governance to policy makers

The activities of the Hydraulic Structures Laboratory concern experimental modeling and the development of new hybrid numerical/experimental approaches applied to the analysis of flows in the natural and built environment. Among others, we carry out applied research projects related to design of hydraulic structures, floods forecasting and management, pumped-storage development.

The research Group on Turbomachinery and Energy System is deeply involved in research activities dealing with fluid machines and in particular with hydropower. The group has also a research infrastructure with 4 open test-rigs for experimental analyses on turbines and pump-turbines. The main research topics are: design optimization, CFD analyses, cavitation, sediment transportation, hybridization, machine and system modelling for optimal management and predictive maintenance.

VERBUND is Austria's leading energy company and one of the largest electricity producers from hydropower in Europe. Our research promotes the understanding of the interactions and influences of hydropower use on our environment and aims to contribute to sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions.

vgbe energy e.V. is the technical association of energy plant operators. Our members are companies that operate power, heat and cooling, energy storage and sector coupling plants worldwide.

vgbe energy l Hydro Power, as part of vgbe energy, is the first address for interested parties in techno-economic and ecological issues as well as application-oriented research concerning hydropower and maintenance and it performs as the collective European platform and key representative for operators, manufacturers and suppliers of the hydropower community.