A comprehensive view of global potential for hydro-generated electricity

Zhou, Yuyu; Hejazi, Mohamad; Smith, Steve; Edmonds, James A.; Li, Hongyi; Clarke, Leon; Calvin, Katherine; Thomson, Allison M.

doi:10.1039/c5ee00888c

Cited by 145 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…This would also provide an opportunity to test the transferability of swimming performance measures from highly artificial laboratory conditions. At a time when the world is experiencing a boom in the construction of hydropower dams due to global population growth, increasing electricity demand, the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the vast unrealized potential of renewable energy resources (Zarfl et al, 2015;Zhou et al, 2015), riverine connectivity arises as a very sensitive issue. Traditional fish passes, originally conceived for migratory sport fish species, and especially nature-like fish ramps appear to be suitable for provision of habitat connectivity for non-sport species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydropower Development, Riverine Connectivity, and Non-sport Fish Species: criteria for Hydraulic Design of Fishways

et al. 2016

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Hydropower barriers are among the most conspicuous anthropogenic alterations to natural riverine connectivity, resulting in species-specific effects linked to dispersal abilities, especially swimming performance. They may present a particular problem for small-bodied 'non-sport fish', such as those that characterize the freshwater communities of temperate regions in the Southern Hemisphere. Recent studies have suggested that nature-like fishways could ensure passage of diverse fish assemblages through hydropower barriers. Through experiments performed in a swim tunnel, we present, for the first time, fishway design criteria for two non-sport species endemic to Chile, a country experiencing rapid hydropower development. In`cremental velocity tests showed that Cheirodon galusdae and juveniles of Basilichthys microlepidotus were capable of very similar standardized critical swimming speeds of 69.7 and 69.6 cm s À1 , respectively. When expressed in units of body lengths, C. galusdae was capable of very high critical speeds of 16.2 bl s À1, whereas for B. microlepidotus, this was 7.6 bl s À1 . However, fixed velocity tests revealed that the swimming endurance of the latter species was slightly higher. Dimensionless analysis showed a clear relationship between fatigue time and fish Froude number, similar to that already described for subcarangiforms. Based on these results, we present fishway design curves indicating a transition from sustained to prolonged swimming at a fishway length of 15 m. Our results show that the swimming capacity of these species is well-suited to the mean flow velocity field described for nature-like fishways. However, more work is required to understand the effects of turbulence on the passage of non-sport species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydropower Development, Riverine Connectivity, and Non-sport Fish Species: criteria for Hydraulic Design of Fishways

et al. 2016

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“…Focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa, the installed hydropower capacity (as in 2017) was estimated at 30.4 GW [16]. Despite this, around 92% of the 300 GW potential still remains untapped [20].The opportunities for expanding hydropower are considerable and could help support electricity provision in remote African communities, especially when developed in a small, decentralized scale [21,22]. Given favorable hydrological conditions, hydropower offers a relatively low levelized cost, continuous generation without storage requirements, and the ability to operate both in isolated or interconnected (to a national grid) mode [23].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…In addition to that, the addition of a geo-spatial component in such assessments can help answering questions regarding proper site selection and lead to better allocation of (usually) scarce financial resources.Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and modern remote sensing techniques convey useful information that can add significant value in hydropower assessments. Their integration can provide useful insights to policy makers and developers regarding the future deployment and spatial distribution of distributed generation systems, including among them new hydropower plants [20].There is a significant number of studies that assess the potential of hydropower using GIS based approaches [31,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]. The majority of these studies however, are focused on a particular hydrological unit (basin, sub-basin) or on a country level.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…An exception is the study carried out by Zhou et al, which assesses the potential for hydro-generated electricity on a global scale, but does not spatially identify the locations of potential sites for hydropower exploitation. Furthermore, the analysis has been Energies 2018, 11, 3100 3 of 21 conducted on a 0.5 × 0.5 degree basis, a coarse resolution that increases uncertainty when interpreting the results [20].This study aims to address the previously described data limitations by providing a comprehensive geospatial assessment of hydropower potential at regional level and high spatial resolution (0.00083 degrees,~100 m) for 44 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study focuses on small-scale hydropower in particular, since big hydropower plants (GERD (Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam), Grand Inga, Akosombo, Kariba, Cahora Bassa, Gibe, Merowe etc.)…”

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A Geospatial Assessment of Small-Scale Hydropower Potential in Sub-Saharan Africa

et al. 2018

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Sub-Saharan Africa has been at the epicenter of an ongoing global dialogue around the issue of energy poverty. More than half of the world's population without access to modern energy services lives there. It also happens to be a sub-continent with plentiful renewable energy resource potential. Hydropower is one of them, and to a large extent it remains untapped. This study focuses on the technical assessment of small-scale hydropower (0.01-10 MW) in Sub-Saharan Africa. The underlying methodology was based on open source geospatial datasets, whose combination allowed a consistent evaluation of 712,615 km of river network spanning over 44 countries. Environmental, topological, and social constraints were included in the form of constraints in the optimization algorithm. The results are presented on a country and power pool basis.Energies 2018, 11, 3100 of 21Recent studies indicate that the decentralization (typically of a scale less than 10 MW) of energy systems can help in addressing energy poverty [9][10][11][12][13][14]. Off-grid or mini-grid systems can be a viable near-term alternative to grid extension in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa [15]. The prospect for decentralized energy supplies are further enhanced by the continent's abundant renewable resources. Further, the local employment is developed for deployment and maintenance of local renewable electricity generating equipment [5]. A cornerstone in the movement towards renewables is hydropower [16,17]. Role of HydropowerHydropower is a technically mature and economically competitive renewable energy source that can provide significant advantages in the operations and stability of energy systems [16]. Across Africa, hydropower is responsible for 74.2% of all non-fossil fuel electricity use [18]. In 2017 the total installed hydropower capacity in Africa was 35.34 GW [16], producing approximately 131 TWh of electricity; hydropower accounts for about 21% of the total installed capacity in the continent [16,18,19]. Focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa, the installed hydropower capacity (as in 2017) was estimated at 30.4 GW [16]. Despite this, around 92% of the 300 GW potential still remains untapped [20].The opportunities for expanding hydropower are considerable and could help support electricity provision in remote African communities, especially when developed in a small, decentralized scale [21,22]. Given favorable hydrological conditions, hydropower offers a relatively low levelized cost, continuous generation without storage requirements, and the ability to operate both in isolated or interconnected (to a national grid) mode [23]. It is estimated that the installed capacity of small-scale hydropower (below 10 MW) in Sub-Saharan Africa surpasses 476 MW [24,25].According to [21,24], the small-scale hydropower resource potential in the region is estimated at 12,197 MW, with the eastern part of the continent showing the highest potential. Szabo et al. [9] consider small-scale hydro as a very suitable option for rural electrification in Africa, showing high poten...

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“…c max in equation 3g is derived for each basin by calculating the storage volume associated with the total available land area (see appendix A section 1). We followed the approach of a number of previous studies on renewable energy potentials (de Vries et al 2007, Zhou et al 2015 and define reservoir exclusion zones using maps of the following drivers: (1) population (Jones et al 2016); (2) irrigated cropland (Siebert et al 2013); and (3) protected areas (figure S1 and table S1 available at stacks.iop.org/ERL/13/044026/mmedia) (Deguignet et al 2014). We adopted dynamic population trajectories under two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) -SSP1 and SSP3.…”

Section: Exclusion Zonesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the potential for reservoirs to secure future surface water yields in the world’s largest river basins

Parkinson

Gidden

et al. 2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Surface water reservoirs provide us with reliable water supply, hydropower generation, flood control and recreation services. Yet reservoirs also cause flow fragmentation in rivers and lead to flooding of upstream areas, thereby displacing existing land-use activities and ecosystems. Anticipated population growth and development coupled with climate change in many regions of the globe suggests a critical need to assess the potential for future reservoir capacity to help balance rising water demands with long-term water availability. Here, we assess the potential of large-scale reservoirs to provide reliable surface water yields while also considering environmental flows within 235 of the world's largest river basins. Maps of existing cropland and habitat conservation zones are integrated with spatially-explicit population and urbanization projections from the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways to identify regions unsuitable for increasing water supply by exploiting new reservoir storage. Results show that even when maximizing the global reservoir storage to its potential limit (∼4.3-4.8 times the current capacity), firm yields would only increase by about 50% over current levels. However, there exist large disparities across different basins. The majority of river basins in North America are found to gain relatively little firm yield by increasing storage capacity, whereas basins in Southeast Asia display greater potential for expansion as well as proportional gains in firm yield under multiple uncertainties. Parts of Europe, the United States and South America show relatively low reliability of maintaining current firm yields under future climate change, whereas most of Asia and higher latitude regions display comparatively high reliability. Findings from this study highlight the importance of incorporating different factors, including human development, land-use activities, and climate change, over a time span of multiple decades and across a range of different scenarios when quantifying available surface water yields and the potential for reservoir expansion.

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A comprehensive view of global potential for hydro-generated electricity

Abstract: This study provides the first comprehensive quantification of global hydropower potential including gross, technical, economic, and exploitable estimates.

Cited by 145 publications

References 37 publications

Hydropower Development, Riverine Connectivity, and Non-sport Fish Species: criteria for Hydraulic Design of Fishways

Hydropower Development, Riverine Connectivity, and Non-sport Fish Species: criteria for Hydraulic Design of Fishways

A Geospatial Assessment of Small-Scale Hydropower Potential in Sub-Saharan Africa

Quantifying the potential for reservoirs to secure future surface water yields in the world’s largest river basins

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