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A 2000 report by the World Commission on Dams showed a huge fall in popularity, leading some to declare the era of the dam was over. Almost two decades on and they are enjoying something of a renaissance. Andrew Tunnicliffe speaks with Professor Benjamin Sovacool about the impact dams have on the socioeconomics of a country and why corruption is often rife.

What does the future hold for the world's largest renewable energy source, hydropower? Hydropower is an incredibly old source of energy, tracing its usage back to the watermills that have been a staple of civilisations since ancient times. Today, it is the largest source of renewable energy in the world, with an installed capacity of over 1126GW in 2018. Hydropower is particularly prominent in China, where the world's largest power station Three Gorges power plant in Hubei province produces 22.5GW. Other massive projects also dot the country, including the Xilodu (12.3GW) and Longtan (6.3GW) dams.

Offshore wind could be described as the younger sibling of onshore wind, with the first offshore windfarm being completed off the coast of Denmark 1991. In countries such as the US, offshore wind is almost non-existent at the moment , but offshore wind is particularly strong in the UK and Europe, with 1.9GW being installed on the continent in the first half of 2019.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's long-held ambitions for civil nuclear power have hit the headlines again, partly due to the Trump administration's support. If the kingdom is to succeed, it first has to accept its international obligations, including IAEA monitoring.

The decision by Iraq to invite interest in a number of solar independent power producer (IPP) projects is not the first time that Baghdad has sought to push ahead with competitively tendered IPP schemes.