Regional hydroclimatic variability and change can affect water resources and hydropower generation. It is essential to assess hydropower potential under current and future climatic conditions to ...inform the design and operation of hydropower infrastructures. Here, we employ an integrated modeling framework to assess the impact of projected hydroclimatic conditions on water resource systems and hydropower generation. The integrated framework samples climate model outputs under different scenarios to force a hydrologic model and produces streamflow projections. The projected streamflows are inputs for the future hydropower potential assessment. We implement the framework in the central Himalayan river basin. Our results demonstrate substantial spatiotemporal variability in different water balance components (precipitation, evapotranspiration, and water yield) under current and future climatic conditions. For the Himalayan Tila river basin, the annual average energy production is expected to increase under future hydroclimatic conditions (up to 39% in Tila-2 hydropower project, suggested by ensemble mean). Furthermore, this increase in energy is driven mainly by the increased streamflow projections, particularly during the dry season and in the late century. Our results highlight the impacts of hydroclimatic variability in hydropower productions and are of practical use to provide decision-relevant information for designing and operating hydropower infrastructures. The integrated modeling framework presented here is region-specific; however, the approach is reproducible, and the overall insights are generalizable across the Himalayan region.
Climate change is expected to cause alterations of streamflow regimes in the Alpine region, with possible relevant consequences for several socio-economic sectors including hydropower production. The ...impact of climate change on water resources and hydropower production is evaluated with reference to the Noce catchment, which is located in the Southeastern Alps, Italy. Projected changes of precipitation and temperature, derived from an ensemble of 4 climate model (CM) runs for the period 2040–2070 under the SRES A1B emission scenario, have been downscaled and bias corrected before using them as climatic forcing in a hydrological model. Projections indicate an increase of the mean temperature of the catchment in the range 2–4K, depending on the climate model used. Projections of precipitation indicate an increase of annual precipitation in the range between 2% and 6% with larger changes in winter and autumn. Hydrological simulations show an increase of water yield during the period 2040–2070 with respect to 1970–2000. Furthermore, a transition from glacio-nival to nival regime is projected for the catchment. Hydrological regime is expected to change as a consequence of less winter precipitation falling as snow and anticipated melting in spring, with the runoff peak decreasing in intensity and anticipating from July to June. Changes in water availability reflect in the Technical Hydropower Potential (THP) of the catchment, with larger changes projected for the hydropower plants located at the highest altitudes. Finally, the impacts on THP of water use policies such as the introduction of prescriptions for minimum ecological flow (MEF) have been analyzed. Simulations indicate that in the lower part of the catchment reduction of the hydropower production due to MEF releases from the storage reservoirs counterbalances the benefits associated to the projected increases of inflows as foreseen by simulations driven only by climate change.
•First assessment of climate change impact on hydropower in South-eastern Alps, Italy•Significant differences in the impacts between hydropower plants within the catchment•Relevant effect of minimum ecological flow regulation on hydropower potential
Siloed-approaches may fuel the misguided development of hydropower and subsequent target-setting under the sustainable development goals (SDGs). While hydropower development in the Indus basin is ...vital to ensure energy security (SDG7), it needs to be balanced with water use for fulfilling food (SDG2) and water (SDG6) security. Existing methods to estimate hydropower potential generally focus on: only one class of potential, a methodological advance for either of hydropower siting, sizing, or costing of one site, or the ranking of a portfolio of projects. A majority of them fall short in addressing sustainability. Hence, we develop a systematic framework for the basin-scale assessment of the sustainable hydropower potential by integrating considerations of the water-energy-food nexus, disaster risk, climate change, environmental protection, and socio-economic preferences. Considering the case of the upper Indus, the framework is developed by combining advances in literature, insights from local hydropower practitioners and over 30 datasets to represent real-life challenges to sustainable hydropower development, while distinguishing between small and large plants for two run-of-river plant configurations. The framework first addresses theoretical potential and successively constrains this further by stepwise inclusion of technical, economical, and sustainability criteria to obtain the sustainable exploitable hydropower potential. We conclude that sustainable hydropower potential in complex basins such as the Indus goes far beyond the hydrological boundary conditions. Our framework enables the careful inclusion of factors beyond the status-quo technological and economic criterions to guide policymakers in hydropower development decisions in the Indus and beyond. Future work will implement the framework to quantify the different hydropower potential classes and explore adaptation pathways to balance SDG7 with the other interlinked SDGs in the Indus.
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•We present a systematic framework to assess sustainable hydropower potential.•The framework assesses theoretical, technical, economic, and sustainable potential.•It combines 30 datasets to represent natural, legal, disaster and social constraints.•Including these constraints in early assessments can improve hydropower decisions•The framework helps balance SDG7 (energy) with the linked SDGs 2 & 6 (food, water).
Poor access to electricity remains a major hindrance to the economic development in Central Africa sub-region. To address this issue the Central African Power Pool (CAPP) has been established with ...the vision to create and manage a regional cross-borders exchange of electricity based on the development of the sub-region's enormous hydropower potential. However, the implementation of this vision is struggling with poor visibility on information related to the potential and the state-of-the-art of the development of hydropower in the member states. The objective of this work is to review the literature and data pertaining to the potential of hydropower and state of development in Cameroon, in the perspective of full access to energy in Central Africa as targeted by CAPP. The reviewed documents include both research articles and reports of investigative works carried out in the field of hydropower by various technical commissions since 1970s. This encompasses conventional hydropower at large and small schemes, storage dams and, pumped-storage for which a comprehensive synthesis of the available data and information appears crucial. A better understanding of the current state of hydropower in the country is provided as well some policy recommendations for a hydro-based development of the power sector in the whole sub-region. It is hoped that this paper contributes to synthesising the various assessments of Cameroon's hydropower potential, so as to address the issue of lack of visibility on data and information in the sector, as this has hitherto been a handicap to the fulfilment of the pool's vision.
•The present situation and upcoming development of Central Africa Power Pool is discussed.•The pivotal role of Cameroon in achieving Central Africa Power Pool's objective is highlighted.•Many large hydropower and storage plants in Cameroon might feed the Inga-Calabar power highway.•Small-hydropower and pumped-storage are showing good prospects for electrifying many remote areas in Cameroon.•A few hydropower projects are under construction while most of them are still awaiting financing.
Renewable energy resources have played an important role to meet increasing energy demand in the world. Among the renewable energy resources, especially, wind energy is of interest due to some ...advantages, such as being clean, environmental friendly etc. However, the intermittent nature of wind creates several problems to the power system operation and new approaches based on the combined use of wind power and energy storage technologies need to be developed. One of these combined systems is wind-hydro pumped storage systems. In this paper, hydropower and wind energy potential of Turkey are investigated in details. Besides, the importance and the necessity of wind-hydro pumped storage systems for Turkey are comprehensively examined and finally, the contribution of wind-hydro pumped storage systems is emphasized in meeting Turkey's electric energy demand.
Purpose: Energy access is one of the challenges confronting Nigeria and many Sub-Saharan African countries. The energy poverty experienced in the country is even more pervasive in the rural ...communities where only about 36% of the population had access to electricity. With the current improvement in technological advancement in GIS and remote sensing, identifying small hydropower sites have become relatively easier, faster, and cost effective. Small hydropower is a clean renewable and reliable energy alternative that meets the economic and environmental energy policy objectives. This study therefore seeks to explore the viability of the SHP potentials for rural electrification.Design/ methodology/ approach: The quantitative research approach was employed. The study analysed the small hydropower potentials in Ogun watershed using geospatial techniques (Hydrology, Neighbourhood analysis, Watershed analysis) and descriptive statistics to describe the population and energy dynamics of the study area. Findings: The study identified a total of 137 potential hydropower sites with a minimum energy potential of 502 kw and maximum of 5.80 mw. Ogun watershed has 202200kW of potential energy is expected to support the electricity need of 59,471 rural households across ten local government areas in Ogun watershed.Research implications/ limitations: The study concludes that with the abundant water resources available in the country, small hydropower plants are viable option for reducing the energy deficit of the country and can also help in the attainment of sustainable development goals 7 (universal energy access for all).Practical implications/ limitations: The study further posited that the development of small hydropower in Ogun Watershed will reduce the level of energy poverty experienced in the rural communities and stimulates the growth and development of the communities across social, environmental, and economic dimension.Originality: This study was able to estimate the viability of the energy potential identified along Ogun Watershed for rural electrification of communities within 2km radius of the potential site. Keywords: Electricity, Small hydropower potential, GIS, and Rural Electrification Received: 07 June 2022 Accepted: 13 July 2022 Published: 10 August 2022
ABSTRACT
Maintaining water availability and electric energy production are the major concerns for the future in countries which are extremely dependent on their water resources like Brazil. The ...objective of this study was to assess the impacts of climate change on streamflow and therefore on hydropower potential of the Grande river basin headwater region, Southeast Brazil. For this purpose, the SWAT model was used to simulate the hydrological behaviour of the headwaters under the Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios, obtained from the Regional Climate Models Eta‐HadGEM‐ES and Eta‐MIROC5 between the years 2007 and 2099. Through power duration curves we estimated the hypothetical average annual energy production at three hydropower plants installed in cascade in the region, being, from upstream to downstream, Camargos, Itutinga and Funil. These plants account for a potential of 277 MW. SWAT was able to simulate the streamflow of the Grande river basin headwaters and, therefore, to reproduce the observed monthly streamflow from the baseline period (1961–2005) reasonably well for all three hydropower plants. In general, the results indicated a significant streamflow reduction and therefore reductions in runoff during all the simulated periods and all radiative forcing analysed, when compared to the baseline period. Thus, these results led to reductions in hydropower potential and hence decreases of the annual energy production varying from 6.1 to 58.6% throughout the 21st Century.
In this paper, it was found significant streamflow reductions due to climate change during all the simulated periods and all radiative forcing analysed, when compared to the baseline period, leading to reductions in hydropower potential and hence, decreases of the annual energy production varying from 6.1 to 58.6% throughout the 21st century.
Wastewater treatment facilities are often overlooked as a valuable and sustainable energy source with limited literature available on the methodologies used for identifying energy recovery potential ...at these locations. The lack of research on methodologies to identify potential for energy recovery with limited available data is especially prevalent. This paper aims to address this gap in research by reviewing previous studies that have evaluated the hydropower potential, with a focus specifically on the evaluation of hydropower potential at wastewater treatment works and the technologies most suitable for these sites. Additionally a new methodology was proposed for the assessment of South African wastewater treatment works with the aim of quantifying the potential of this unconventional opportunity when limited access to data poses a challenge. The developed wastewater treatment works evaluation framework was applied to all municipal wastewater treatment works in the Gauteng province to identify a first order estimate of 130 kW–884 kW hydropower potential available in the province.
•Review of hydropower evaluation methods.•Review of hydropower technologies at wastewater treatment works.•Generic wastewater treatment works evaluation framework to quantify potential.•Criteria within the framework alleviate problems associated with limited data.•Framework criteria are validated according to the study area under investigation.
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