Improving the ecohydrological and economic efficiency of Small Hydropower Plants with water diversion
| Autor: | Pierre Razurel, Paolo Perona, Stefania Tron, Amin Niayifar, Benoît Crouzy, Lorenzo Gorla |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Economic efficiency
Small hydro Resource (biology) 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Natural resource economics business.industry 0208 environmental biotechnology Pareto principle Distribution (economics) 02 engineering and technology Redistribution (cultural anthropology) 01 natural sciences 020801 environmental engineering Work (electrical) Sustainability Environmental science business 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Water Science and Technology |
| Zdroj: | Razurel, P, Gorla, L, Tron, S, Niayifar, A, Crouzy, B & Perona, P 2018, ' Improving the ecohydrological and economic efficiency of Small Hydropower Plants with water diversion ', Advances in Water Resources . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2018.01.029 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.advwatres.2018.01.029 |
| Popis: | Water exploitation for energy production from Small Hydropower Plant (SHP) is increasing despite human pressure on freshwater already being very intense in several countries. Preserving natural rivers thus requires deeper understanding of the global (i.e., ecological and economic) efficiency of flow-diversion practice. In this work, we show that the global efficiency of SHP river intakes can be improved by non-proportional flow-redistribution policies. This innovative dynamic water allocation defines the fraction of water released to the river as a nonlinear function of river runoff. Three swiss SHP case studies are considered to systematically test the global performance of such policies, under both present and future hydroclimatic regimes. The environmental efficiency is plotted versus the economic efficiency showing that efficient solutions align along a (Pareto) frontier, which is entirely formed by non-proportional policies. On the contrary, other commonly used distribution policies generally lie below the Pareto frontier. This confirms the existence of better policies based on non-proportional redistribution, which should be considered in relation to implementation and operational costs. Our results recommend abandoning static (e.g., constant-minimal-flow) policies in favour of non-proportional dynamic ones towards a more sustainable use of the water resource, also considering changing hydroclimatic scenarios. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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