Cross-layer insight

Hydropower in a drying world

Where a country leans on a few big dams, a drought is a blackout — as Zambia and Ecuador found out.

Hydropower is clean and cheap until the water stops. Grids built around a handful of large dams have no buffer when reservoirs fall: Zambia's reliance on Kariba turned a Zambezi-basin drought into months of rolling outages, and Ecuador's hydro shortfall forced 14-hour blackouts in 2024.

Filter the power-plant layer to hydro and the exposure is geographic — basins where a few large stations carry a whole national grid are exactly the places a dry year hits hardest.

Layers in this view

Power Plantshydro only

SOURCE: WRI Global Power Plant Database