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Next-generation alternatives
Published in Peter M. Schwarz, Energy Economics, 2023
Hydropower typically uses large dams that create energy as water falls a large distance and drives a turbine, which in turn generates electricity. Hydropower depends upon the distance and the volume of water. Hoover Dam, built during the Great Depression, is as tall as a 60-story building and has a 2,000 MW capacity. It changed the Colorado River from a mighty fast-flowing river to a sluggish water flow that changed the river’s ecology. Next-generation hydro will avoid large dams and their ecological consequences. Small-scale hydro from 5 to 100 kW is designated micro hydro, and the smallest scale below 5 kW is pico hydro.
A Global Hydropower Generation, Potentials, and Externalities
Published in Muhammad Asif, Handbook of Energy Transitions, 2023
Hydropower is the largest source of renewable energy production at present. Hydropower generation accounts for 16% of total electricity supply and 72% of total renewable energy production globally (IEA, 2016). It is the key source of energy contributing to more than 95% of national energy supply in countries such as Norway, Iceland, Nepal, and Tajikistan. In addition to electricity supply, hydropower systems provide clean water for irrigation, residential areas, and industrial sites. Water reservoir banks are also used for developing catering and recreational businesses. Hydropower projects improve water regulation capacity and thus may increase the society’s resilience against extreme events such as drought and floods. The hydropower sector has been also promoted as a clean energy option due to its lower carbon emission intensity compared to fossil fuel-based energy production. Thus, additional efforts are recommended to expand the sector in clean energy transition policy roadmaps. For instance, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) shows the worthiness of allocating investments of about US$ 1.7 trillion (by 2050) in installing additional 850 GW hydropower capacity for enhancing the Paris Agreement goals (IRENA, 2020).
Hydropower
Published in Robert Ehrlich, Harold A. Geller, John R. Cressman, Renewable Energy, 2023
Robert Ehrlich, Harold A. Geller, John R. Cressman
Hydropower comes in many forms, and this chapter considered the four most important among them: conventional freshwater hydro, wave power, tidal power, and OTEC. The first of these is by far the most important in terms of its exploitation to date and its future potential—especially in parts of the world that have so far not exploited a large fraction of their potential. Conventional hydro also has a number of highly desirable features compared to nearly all other renewable energy sources, given its dispatchability. Of the remaining three forms of hydro, very little power has been produced to date, and the potential for the future hinges on the technical and economic feasibilities of several new developments. Each of the forms of hydropower is not without its environmental problems, but those problems are very probably less serious than generating the same amount of electricity from nonrenewable sources.
Techno-economic analysis of In-stream technology: A review
Published in International Journal of Green Energy, 2023
Upendra Bajpai, Sunil Kumar Singal
The available conventional energy sources, such as coal, oil, and nuclear have drawbacks as they pollute the environment by emitting harmful greenhouse gases (GHG), and these resources will deplete with time (Salameh 2014). The energy shortage and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are two primary motivators for conducting extensive research to develop clean energy technologies. Hydropower is the renewable energy source that extract power from the available energy when water flows from a higher elevation to a lower elevation. Large hydropower plants and small hydropower plants (SHPs) are the two primary divisions of hydropower (Kumar et al. 2011). Large-scale hydropower plant production is often criticized for its harmful environmental impacts, such as biodiversity loss and deforestation. Small-scale hydropower plants are considered eco-friendly, need less construction time, and provide an opportunity for off-grid transmission. There has been exponential growth in SHPs with time. The share of SHPs, mostly small diversion Run of River (RoR) hydropower, in the world’s power generation has risen by more than 10% during the past ten years (Liu et al. 2019).
Investigation of design parameters on self-floating water wheel for micro-hydropower generation
Published in International Journal of Green Energy, 2022
S K Teoh, S Y Wong, C H Lim, S S Leong, S W Khoo
In recent years, the global energy demand is growing continuously, which is primarily attributed to the rapid economy development and population growth. Due to the widespread usage of limited fossil fuels, the expenditure of renewable energy resources is often the key priority for most countries that are expected to increase their renewable energy production by about 1.6% per year between 2009 and 2030 (Yah, Oumer, and Idris 2017). Renewable energy is important to fulfil the global energy demand while minimizing the environmental pollution and reducing the emission of greenhouse gases during the electricity generation, which can be advantageous in preventing the global warming (Quaranta 2018). Out of various forms of renewable energy, hydropower energy appears to be one of the most important energy resources which contributes at least 76% of the total usage of renewable energy worldwide owing to the unlimited water sources as well as the cleanliness and cost-effective features of this energy form (Yah, Oumer, and Idris 2017). Typically, hydropower is generated using the stream flow of water, in which the kinetic and potential energy released by the water, either falling through vertical distance or moving horizontally, are harvested by a turbine. The striking of water onto the turbine blade creates mechanical energy, which will be further transmitted into electrical energy through rotating shaft (Zaman and Khan 2012).
Integrative technology hubs for urban food-energy-water nexuses and cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs (I): Global trend and technology metrics
Published in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 2021
Ni-Bin Chang, Uzzal Hossain, Andrea Valencia, Jiangxiao Qiu, Qipeng P. Zheng, Lixing Gu, Mengnan Chen, Jia-Wei Lu, Ana Pires, Chelsea Kaandorp, Edo Abraham, Marie-Claire ten Veldhuis, Nick van de Giesen, Bruno Molle, Severine Tomas, Nassim Ait-Mouheb, Deborah Dotta, Rémi Declercq, Martin Perrin, Léon Conradi, Geoffrey Molle
As a potential renewable energy, run-of-the-river hydroelectricity is a typical type of hydropower that harvests the energy from flowing water to generate electricity via an impoundment facility. However, tidal power can also convert kinetic hydro-energy into power. With the rapid advancement of this technology, tidal energy potential has been estimated to be about 32 PWh/year globally (Rusu & Venugopal, 2019). Due to its huge potential, the European Union has planned to install capacities of 3.6 GW and 188 GW by 2020 and 2050, respectively (Segura et al., 2017). Since tidal energy technologies are still in an initial stage of development, environmental impact, cost-benefit, technological viability, and potential risks are yet to be thoroughly studied, although some successful cases have been reported (Segura et al., 2017). Several technology variations have been reported to provide cost-effective energy generation (shown in Supplementary Information Table S4). Some of these technologies may be considered centralized technology. Descriptions of hydro-power technologies such as tidal barrage (T2-TB), dynamic tidal power (T3-DTP), stream generator (T1-SG) and wave energy to power (T4-WtP) are given in Supplementary Information (S1.1), and the associated costs, benefits, and risks are shown in Table S4 (Supplementary Information).