< img ALT = "this is the Rhine River photographed in koub Town, Rhineland Pfalz, Germany on August 11. Affected by the continuous high temperature and dry weather, the water level of the Rhine River in Germany has dropped. Photographed by Xinhua News Agency reporter Shan Weiyi" style = "width: 600px;" src=" https://imagecloud.thepaper.cn/thepaper/image/210/858/474.jpg ">
this is the Rhine River photographed in koub Town, Rhineland Pfalz, Germany, on August 11. Affected by the continuous high temperature and dry weather, the water level of the Rhine River in Germany has dropped. Photographed by Shan Weiyi, a reporter of Xinhua News Agency < / p> the high temperature and severe drought in Europe this summer have affected hydropower, nuclear energy and solar power generation. According to statistics of the Norwegian consulting company lustad energy, the hydropower generation in Europe in the first seven months of this year has decreased by two times compared with the same period last year As a result, nuclear power generation was reduced by 12%< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > the high temperature causes the evaporation of rivers, lakes and reservoirs to increase, the water level to drop, and the hydropower generation bears the brunt. Take Italy as an example. Hydropower accounts for 20% of the country’s total power output, but the country’s hydropower output has dropped sharply by 40% in the past 12 months. Spain’s hydropower output also plunged by 44%< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > energy analyst Fabian langningen said that although the hydropower output fluctuated greatly, the 40% drop was “extremely extreme”. Not only the hydropower output in some regions declined, but also all the major hydropower countries in Europe were not spared< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > Norway, the energy exporting country, warned that if the water level of its reservoir could not rise, it might have to stop exporting energy to Britain and other countries< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > some experts in the hydropower industry say that insufficient investment in hydropower infrastructure and aging of transmission lines are also the reasons for the decline in hydropower output< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > Eddie Ritchie, an expert of the International Association of hydropower, said: “we will encounter (power supply) problems this winter. This should sound an alarm bell for us to increase infrastructure investment in the next few years.”< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > the drought also affected nuclear power, especially in France. Several nuclear power plants of the French electric power company have recently reduced production because the water temperature in natural waters is high at present, which affects the water used by nuclear power plants to cool the reactors< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > Professor Sonia senaviltner of the Federal Institute of technology in Zurich explained that if the water level of the river is too low and the water temperature is too high, the reactor can only be stopped to cool down, otherwise the discharged water will endanger the organisms in the river< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > on May 5, the French government instructed a crisis response working group to coordinate the work of various departments to cope with the drought. “This is the worst drought on record in France,” the French Prime Minister’s office said in a statement< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > high temperature weather is also not conducive to solar power generation, because the photovoltaic power generation panel is “afraid of the sun”, and high temperature will lead to power loss and shortened service life of the power generation panel< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > Katherine Porter, a consultant of watt logic, an energy consulting company, said that when the temperature exceeds 25 ℃, the power generation capacity of photovoltaic power generation panels significantly decreases, “when the temperature is high, everything runs worse”< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > (the original title was “severe drought in Europe affected power production”)