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Energy and Environment
Published in T.M. Aggarwal, Environmental Control in Thermal Power Plants, 2021
Energy in water can be harnessed and used. Since water is about 800 times denser than air, even a slow flowing stream of water, or moderate sea swell, can yield considerable amounts of energy. There are many forms of water energy: Hydroelectric energy is a term usually reserved for large-scale hydroelectric dams. The largest of which is the Three Gorges Dam in China and a smaller example is the Akosombo Dam in Ghana.Micro hydro systems are hydroelectric power installations that typically produce up to 100 kW of power. They are often used in water rich areas as a remote-area power supply (RAPS).Run-of-the-river hydroelectricity systems derive kinetic energy from rivers and oceans without the creation of a large reservoir. Hydropower is produced in 150 countries, with the Asia-Pacific region generating 32 per cent of global hydropower in 2010. China is the largest hydroelectricity producer, with 721 terawatt-hours of production in 2010, representing around 17 per cent of domestic electricity use. There are now three hydroelectricity plants larger than 10 GW: the Three Gorges Dam in China, Itaipu Dam across the Brazil/Paraguay border, and Guri Dam in Venezuela.
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).