Systematic high-resolution assessment of global hydropower potential

Abstract

Population growth, increasing energy demand and the depletion of fossil fuel reserves necessitate a search for sustainable alternatives for electricity generation. Hydropower could replace a large part of the contribution of gas and oil to the present energy mix. However, previous high-resolution estimates of hydropower potential have been local, and have yet to be applied on a global scale. This study is the first to formally present a detailed evaluation of the hydropower potential of each location, based on slope and discharge of each river in the world. The gross theoretical hydropower potential is approximately 52 PWh/year divided over 11.8 million locations. This 52 PWh/year is equal to 33% of the annually required energy, while the present energy production by hydropower plants is just 3% of the annually required energy. The results of this study: all potentially interesting locations for hydroelectric power plants, are available online.

Hydropower dependency and climate change in sub-Saharan Africa: A nexus framework and evidence-based review

“…3.1. Techno-economic analysis of hydropower in SSA A gross technical untapped potential of 7.7 PWh/year (Hoes et al, 2017) has been estimated for SSA, of which there remain between 1.4 PWh/year below a cost of $0.10/kWh (Gernaat et al, 2017) and 2.9 PWh/year below a cost of $0.09/kWh (Zhou et al, 2015), i.e. techno-economically feasible compared to other local generation options.…”

“…In 2016, hydropower generation stood at 98.6 TWh (US EIA, 2017). A gross technical untapped potential of 7.7 PWh/year (Hoes et al, 2017) has been estimated, of which between 1.4 (below a cost of $0.10/kWh) (Gernaat et al, 2017) and 2.9 (below a cost of $0.09/kWh) PWh/year (Zhou et al, 2015) remaining and techno-economically feasible. The IEA (2017) forecasts that hydropower capacity in SSA will increase at a rate of 6% per year during the 2020s (and thus be the fastest-growing technology in terms of capacity additions), reaching 95 GW by 2040 (IEA, 2014).…”

Transient-Flow Induced Compressed Air Energy Storage (TI-CAES) System towards New Energy Concept

“…Hydropower will account for 10% of the total increase in renewable capacity based on a forecast for the period of storage not included), which accounts for 17% of the total generation [1]. Despite the fact that most of the European countries do not provide good potential in the hydropower generation field due to their flat landscape, some countries, like Norway, Russia and Portugal, can provide a good contribution in hydropower energy generation [4].…”

“…Hydropower potential can be categorized in terms of the installed capacity as large (>10 MW), small (<10 MW), mini (<1 MW), micro (<0.1 MW) and pico (<0.005 MW) [4]. Indeed, many of the potential hydropower spots cannot be exploited as a result of technical and economic reasons, but this estimation proves the huge potential behind the hydropower energy generation [4]. Traditional and large hydropower plants are mostly of the impoundment type, which calls for large financial investment.…”

Global resource potential of seasonal pumped hydropower storage for energy and water storage

“…To understand the potential that SPHS can fulfil in future energy storage requirements, in this paper, we present the first comprehensive and globally consistent assessment of SPHS potential. It presents the results from the SPHS world potential model, which is an upgrade of the methods that have been used for estimating global hydropower potential [16][17][18][19][20][21] . One recent study investigates the global potential for PHS and assumes the construction of two reservoirs in a closed loop for daily and weekly operation.…”