22 March 2018

The International Hydropower Association (IHA) is now accepting entries for the IHA Blue Planet Prize.

The prestigious award, which recognises hydropower projects for their achievements in sustainability, will be awarded at the World Hydropower Congress in Paris, France, 14-16 May 2019.

The IHA Blue Planet Prize is awarded to projects which clearly demonstrate excellence according to a range of social, environmental, technical and economic criteria. Up to three projects can be awarded the accolade in each prize year.    

For a project to be considered, it must have undergone an official assessment under the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol, an internationally recognised tool used to assess the performance of a hydropower project across more than 20 topics.

Frank Faraday, Sustainability Programme Manager at IHA, said: “The Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol promotes and guides more sustainable hydropower projects by providing a common language and objective framework for understanding, communicating and improving performance.

“The IHA Blue Planet Prize recognises excellence in the overall sustainability performance of hydropower projects. We encourage all developers and operators who have undertaken or are considering a Protocol assessment to get in touch today to find out how to apply.”

The IHA Blue Planet Prize was last awarded at the 2017 World Hydropower Congress. It was won by the Blanda project in Iceland, owned and operated by Landsvirkjun. The prize has previously been awarded to six other projects since 2001.

Eligible projects will have undergone an official Protocol assessment with the results of that assessment published before 31 December 2018. A project must have achieved or exceeded good practice scores across all Protocol topics and the plant must have been commissioned prior to entry.

The winner will be chosen by a panel of experts from the hydropower and sustainability sectors. For more information on the prize and to register your interest, visit IHA’s website: hydropower.org/iha-blue-planet-prize