The hydropower sector in Poland: Barriers and the outlook for the future

Kałuża, Tomasz; Hämmerling, Mateusz; Zawadzki, Paweł; Czekała, Wojciech; Kasperek, R.; Sojka, Mariusz; Mokwa, Marian; Ptak, Mariusz; Szkudlarek, Arkadiusz; Czechlowski, M.; Dach, Jacek

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2022.112500

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 91 publications

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“…Indeed, an international survey of the 60,000 largest dams globally indicated that only one-third of all dams was used for hydropower production 43 . Even in Europe, Poland exhibited a significant unused hydroelectric potential 44 . Moreover, there are 90,000 dams in the US and only approximately 2500 of these dams generate power, i.e., ∼ 3%.…”

Section: Geothermal Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial energy density of large-scale electricity generation from power sources worldwide

Nøland

Auxepaules

Rousset

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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This paper introduces the annual energy density concept for electric power generation, which is proposed as an informative metric to capture the impacts on the environmental footprint. Our investigation covers a wide range of sources classified by rated power and compares different regions to establish typical spatial flows of energy and evaluate the corresponding scalability to meet future net-zero emission (NZE) goals. Our analysis is conducted based on publicly available information pertaining to different regions and remote satellite image data. The results of our systematic analysis indicate that the spatial extent of electric power generation toward 2050 will increase approximately sixfold, from approximately 0.5% to nearly 3.0% of the world’s land area, based on International Energy Agency (IEA) NZE 2050 targets. We investigate the worldwide energy density for ten types of power generation facilities, two involving nonrenewable sources (i.e., nuclear power and natural gas) and eight involving renewable sources (i.e., hydropower, concentrated solar power (CSP), solar photovoltaic (PV) power, onshore wind power, geothermal power, offshore wind power, tidal power, and wave power). In total, our study covers 870 electric power plants worldwide, where not only the energy density but also the resulting land or sea area requirements to power the world are estimated. Based on the provided meta-analysis results, this paper challenges the common notion that solar power is the most energy-dense renewable fuel source by demonstrating that hydropower supersedes solar power in terms of land use in certain regions of the world, depending on the topography.

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Section: Geothermal Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial energy density of large-scale electricity generation from power sources worldwide

Nøland

Auxepaules

Rousset

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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show abstract

“…Indeed, an international survey of the 60 000 largest dams in the world shows that only one-third of the dams are used for hydropower production 18 . Even in Europe, Poland has a significant unused hydroelectric potential 19 . Developing these dams would, therefore, have a double effect, greatly reducing the environmental impact by utilizing existing facilities and increasing the production of electricity with hydraulic technology.…”

Section: Hydromentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This spatial surface is not so straightforward to establish, and we mostly need to limit our estimate to Google Earth-obtained measurements. Our overall population study for the power and energy density is based on 173 wind farms located in 19 Scatter plot that contains onshore and offshore utility-scale PV farms and residential PV. Eleven onshore PV farms (n = 11), including 1 from Peru, 1 from South Korea, 1 from Japan, 1 from Taiwan, 1 from Philippines, 1 from Netherlands, 1 from Belgium, 1 from UK, 1 from Germany, 1 from France, and 1 from Spain.…”

Section: Windmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Energy Densities of Large-Scale Electricity Generation from Power Sources Worldwide

Nøland

Auxepaules

Rousset

et al. 2022

Preprint

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This paper introduces the concept of the annual energy density of electric power generation, which is proposed as an informative metric to capture the impacts on the environmental footprint. Our investigation covers a wide range of sources based on the installed capacity and compares different regions to establish typical flows of energy densities and evaluate their scalability to meet future net-zero emission goals. Our data analysis is based on publicly available information from different regions. The results of our systematic analysis show that the land use for electric power generation toward 2050 will increase about six times, from about 0.5 % to nearly 3.0 %, based on IEA targets. We investigate worldwide energy densities for ten different types of power generation facilities, two from non-renewable sources (i.e., nuclear and natural gas) and eight from renewable sources (i.e., hydro, solar CSP, solar PV, onshore wind, geothermal, offshore wind, tidal, and wave). In total, our study covers 871 electric power plants worldwide, where not only their energy density has been estimated but also their resulting environmental footprint. Based on the meta-analysis provided, this paper challenges the common notion that solar power is the most energy-dense renewable fuel by showing that hydro supersedes solar in terms of land use in certain regions of the world, depending on the topography.

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“…This raises the need for an integrated approach that considers the requirements of sustainable development as well as research and innovations in the scope of hydropower generation [17]. The situation in Poland was analyzed by Kału ża et al [18], pointing to the key barriers faced by the hydropower sector, among others, as follows: institutional (including the inappropriate structure of legal documents of the Polish system of support for renewable energy sources, inappropriate implementation of the obligation to consider green energy in the sold energy balance, as well as the lack of obligation to consider issues related to the management of the local renewable energy sources); social (including protests of residents blocking an investment due to concerns for the ecological effects, water quality, etc. ); economic (return on investment), and climatic (decrease in river outflow).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of the Impact of Flow Changes and Water Management Rules in the Dam Reservoir on Energy Generation at the Jeziorsko Hydropower Plant

et al. 2022

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This paper presents the impact of flow changes in the Warta River and water management rules regarding the Jeziorsko dam reservoir on the energy production by the hydropower plant in the period 1995–2021. The Jeziorsko dam reservoir was built in 1986. It is the second largest dam reservoir in Poland in terms of surface area. In 1994, a hydropower plant with an installed capacity of 4.89 MW started operation. The study results show the average annual energy production from 1995 to 2021 at a level of 18,718 MWh. On the other hand, energy production largely changed from year to year, from 12,432 MWh (in 2019) to 26,916 MWh (in 2001). The droughts that have occurred in the Warta River basin over the past two decades have had a major impact on energy production. As a consequence of the drought, it was not possible to maintain the required water level in the reservoir. Moreover, a change in the rules for the reservoir’s management that led to lower water levels in the reservoir by 1.5 m between April and June was important from the point of view of energy production. Improving the efficiency of energy production requires changing the rules of water management in the reservoir. More flexible reservoir operation schemes should be considered, including operational management based on meteorological and hydrological forecasts. Moreover, other criteria should also be considered, such as maintaining environmental flows, ensuring protection from flooding, and operating a nature reserve around the reservoir.

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The hydropower sector in Poland: Barriers and the outlook for the future

Cited by 12 publications

References 91 publications

Spatial energy density of large-scale electricity generation from power sources worldwide

Spatial energy density of large-scale electricity generation from power sources worldwide

Spatial Energy Densities of Large-Scale Electricity Generation from Power Sources Worldwide

Assessment of the Impact of Flow Changes and Water Management Rules in the Dam Reservoir on Energy Generation at the Jeziorsko Hydropower Plant

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