The life-cycle water footprint of two hydropower projects in Norway

Bakken, Tor Haakon; Modahl, Ingunn Saur; Engeland, Kolbjørn; Raadal, Hanne Lerche; Arnøy, Silje

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.12.036

Cited by 44 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…In ref. the water losses were distributed based on energy production (MWh) and installed capacity (MW), depending on availability of data. Lampert et al also allocated all the losses to the plant closest to the reservoir, but made a clear statement than other plants benefitted from the regulation (but received no water consumption).…”

Section: Dilemmas Related To the Applied Methodologymentioning

confidence: 97%

“…This is in line with the findings by Herath et al, which reported the net water consumption to be in the range 45%–60% of the gross rates. Bakken found this ratio to be much smaller and the net rates were less than 2.5% of the gross values.…”

Section: Dilemmas Related To the Applied Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In more recent studies, water consumption based on net evaporation rates is more commonly reported (e.g., refs. ). When net evaporation rates are calculated, the evapotranspiration prior to the establishment of the reservoir is subtracted from the evaporation from the reservoir surface.…”

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is a methodological problem that is hardly discussed in the scientific literature, and water consumption values are simply calculated by assigning all the water losses to the hydropower plant closest to the reservoir. Except in very few cases, run‐of‐the‐river plants are assigned no losses.…”

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ref. is the only known study that has investigated this assumption, and concluded that it is probably a reasonable assumption to neglect water consumption from construction and decommission, maybe except in cases located in cold climate regions. The conclusion is drawn based on two case studies in Norway, with generally very low total net water consumption values (Table ), where the construction phase contributed with 32% and 9% of the total water losses.…”

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Water Footprint of Hydropower Production—State of the Art and Methodological Challenges

2017

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energy production, which has boosted large-scale investments in solar, wind, and hydropower. [5] There is a growing understanding of the close relation between water and energy, sometimes entitled the waterenergy nexus. [6][7][8][9][10] Water is highly needed in the development of energy resources, and access to energy is a prerequisite in the provision of water services. According to ref.[10], primary energy production and power generation accounted for roughly 10% of total worldwide water withdrawals and around 3% of total water consumption in 2014, which corresponds to withdrawals of around 400 billion m 3 annually. Several regions now experience water stress, [11] and access to water might constrain the further development of energy sources.Production of hydropower is exclusively dependent on the availability of the local water resources, and reduction in the available water will immediately reduce the power production. Among the world's 45 000 registered large dams and reservoirs, [12] ≈75% are classified as single purpose, meaning that they are used exclusively for one specific purpose. [13] The most common single purpose is irrigation (47%), followed by hydropower (19%), water supply (11%), flood control (9%), and the remaining recreation, navigation, and "unclassified." Among the multipurpose reservoirs, serving two or more functions, which is ≈25% of the registered dams, irrigation is also the most frequent purpose. 61% of the registered multipurpose reservoirs have irrigation as one of several functions, followed by flood control (50%), water supply (44%), hydropower production (40%), recreation (30%), and navigation (6%).The world's reservoirs are expected to play an even more important role for the society in the future. Climate change might reduce the available water in arid areas of the world, increase the runoff in wet areas, and change the seasonality. Large developments of intermittent power sources, such as wind and solar power, can also increase the need for flexible energy production, [10] served by for instance by hydropower with reservoirs. [14] This paper aims at:1. Reviewing published estimates of water consumption from hydropower production. 2. Presenting the methodology applied, identify shortcomings and propose improvements.

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Section: Dilemmas Related To the Applied Methodologymentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Dilemmas Related To the Applied Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

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