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| Titel |
Water consumption from hydropower plants – review of published estimates and an assessment of the concept |
| VerfasserIn |
T. H. Bakken, Å. Killingtveit, K. Engeland, K. Alfredsen, A. Harby |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1027-5606
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ; 17, no. 10 ; Nr. 17, no. 10 (2013-10-15), S.3983-4000 |
| Datensatznummer |
250085959
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/hess-17-3983-2013.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
Since the report from IPCC on renewable energy (IPCC, 2012) was published;
more studies on water consumption from hydropower have become available. The
newly published studies do not, however, contribute to a more consistent
picture on what the "true" water consumption from hydropower plants is. The
dominant calculation method is the gross evaporation from the reservoirs
divided by the annual power production, which appears to be an
over-simplistic calculation method that possibly produces a biased picture
of the water consumption of hydropower plants. This review paper shows that
the water footprint of hydropower is used synonymously with water consumption,
based on gross evaporation rates.
This paper also documents and discusses several methodological problems when
applying this simplified approach (gross evaporation divided by annual power
production) for the estimation of water consumption from hydropower
projects. A number of short-comings are identified, including the lack of
clarity regarding the setting of proper system boundaries in space and time.
The methodology of attributing the water losses to the various uses in
multi-purpose reservoirs is not developed. Furthermore, a correct and fair
methodology for handling water consumption in reservoirs based on natural
lakes is needed, as it appears meaningless that all the evaporation losses
from a close-to-natural lake should be attributed to the hydropower
production. It also appears problematic that the concept is not related to
the impact the water consumption will have on the local water resources, as
high water consumption values might not be problematic per se. Finally, it
appears to be a paradox that a reservoir might be accorded a very high water
consumption/footprint and still be the most feasible measure to improve the
availability of water in a region. We argue that reservoirs are not always
the problem; rather they may contribute to the solution of the problems of
water scarcity. The authors consider that an improved conceptual framework
is needed in order to calculate the water footprint from hydropower projects
in a more reasonable way. |
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