Hydrology and site suitability analysis for renewable energy developers
Hydropower feasibility hydrology, reservoir inflow forecasting, and site suitability GIS analysis for solar, wind, and hydro developers evaluating new project sites.
A renewable energy project's financial model rests on a resource estimate, and for hydropower that estimate is a hydrological one. Flow duration, seasonal variability and design flood all feed directly into generation forecasts and spillway sizing, and lenders scrutinise them accordingly.
We provide feasibility-stage hydrology for hydropower, reservoir inflow forecasting for operating schemes, and GIS site suitability analysis for solar and wind developers screening candidate sites against terrain, access and land constraints.
What makes this sector different
- Generation forecasts depend on flow records that are often short or absent at the site itself.
- Lenders require hydrological assumptions to be defensible and independently reviewable.
- Site screening must weigh many spatial constraints at once across a large search area.
- Climate variability makes historical flow records an imperfect guide to future yield.
What we deliver
- Flow duration curves and design flood estimates for hydropower feasibility
- Reservoir inflow forecasting for operational scheduling
- Multi-criteria GIS site suitability analysis with weighted constraint layers
- Terrain, slope and access analysis for candidate site shortlisting
Common questions from renewable energy
Can you estimate flows at an ungauged hydropower site?
Yes, by transferring parameters from hydrologically similar gauged catchments and validating against whatever partial records exist. The resulting flow duration curve carries a wider confidence band than one derived from an on-site gauge, and that band belongs in the financial model rather than being quietly dropped from it.
What does multi-criteria site suitability analysis involve?
Assembling each constraint — slope, aspect, proximity to grid connection and roads, land cover, protected areas, flood exposure — as a spatial layer, weighting them against your project's priorities, and combining them into a ranked suitability surface. The weighting is yours to set; our job is to make the trade-off explicit rather than hidden inside a single score.