--- title: Energy: The Case for Swapping Hydro Power for Solar description: Replacing dams and reservoirs with solar farms, how 'micro insurance' makes surgery affordable for all, and more. canonical: https://time.com/4038204/swap-hydro-power-for-solar/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-17T16:38:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:01:38.055Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Case for Swapping Hydro Power for Solar og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4038204/swap-hydro-power-for-solar/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Case for Swapping Hydro Power for Solar twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Case for Swapping Hydro Power for Solar by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Sep 17, 2015 4:38 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Sep 17, 2015 4:38 PM UTC **1\.** [**The second wave of renewable energy: Replace aging hydroelectric dams with super-efficient solar farms.**](https://e360.yale.edu/feature/undamming%5Frivers%5Fa%5Fchance%5Ffor%5Fnew%5Fclean%5Fenergy%5Fsource/2901/) By John Waldman and Karin Limburg in Yale Environment 360 **2\.** [**With massive scale and a revolutionary ‘micro insurance’ program, this Indian hospital is making surgery affordable for all.**](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/india-doctor/) By Fred de Sam Lazaro at PBS NewsHour **3\.** [**More time outside might mean less nearsightedness in children.**](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/15/us-health-children-myopia-sunlight-idUSKCN0RF21X20150915) By Kathryn Doyle at Reuters **4\.** [**Hidden hunger kills millions and we have the tools to beat it.**](http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/9/hidden-hunger-is-a-global-killer.html) By Marc Van Ameringen in Al Jazeera America **5\.** [**Is it finally time to dump comments on the Internet?**](http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/comments-sections-are-toxic) By Robert Montenegro in Big Think  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4038204/swap-hydro-power-for-solar/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4038204/swap-hydro-power-for-solar/"},"headline":"The Case for Swapping Hydro Power for Solar","datePublished":"2015-09-17T16:38:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:01:38.055Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4038204/swap-hydro-power-for-solar/","keywords":["Innovation","Hunger","Surgery","Solar Power"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4038204/swap-hydro-power-for-solar/","name":"The Case for Swapping Hydro Power for Solar"}}]}] ```