Back to Search
Start Over
Influence of hydrologically based environmental flow methods on flow alteration and energy production in a run-of-river hydropower plant
- Source :
- Journal of Cleaner Production. 232:1028-1042
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2019.
-
Abstract
- Increasing demand for renewable energy has led to a massive expansion of the small-scale hydropower plants and particularly those of run-of-river type. Meanwhile, the awareness concerning river conservation and restoration is being continually increasing. This study focuses on the assessment of environmental flows releases and energy production considering eight hydrological based environmental flows methods. The main goal of this study is to propose a practical approach that allows for quick estimation of the environmental flows releases and alteration due to water diversion for energy production, in the case of run-of-river hydropower plants. For this purpose, the indicators of hydrological alteration approach was applied to characterise flow alteration, and three economic metrics were used to assess the impact on energy production. Downstream Diversion Index was proposed to characterise the degree of water diversion due to energy production. Also, five new simplified indexes derived from indicators of hydrologic alteration approach were proposed to simplify flow alteration characterisation. The results of this study showed that a minor reduction of energy production could significantly improve environmental flows releases for the riverine ecosystem needs. Particularly, proportional dynamic approaches maximise energy production and imposes relatively less flow alteration. Also, it was concluded that following flow parameters: frequency, timing, duration and rates, can be maintained close to the natural regime without necessarily reducing the energy production by choosing the right environmental flows method. Finally, the methodology developed in this study can be a useful decision-making tool to help water managers, by including other relevant information also (i.e., biological, water supply, irrigation, and social) to choose the most appropriate method for the environmental flows determination in the case of run-of-river hydropower plants.
- Subjects :
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
business.industry
020209 energy
Strategy and Management
05 social sciences
Flow (psychology)
Water supply
02 engineering and technology
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Renewable energy
Downstream (manufacturing)
050501 criminology
0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering
Environmental science
Production (economics)
Ecosystem
Duration (project management)
business
Water resource management
Hydropower
0505 law
General Environmental Science
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 09596526
- Volume :
- 232
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Cleaner Production
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........b5403c9e72ebb496caeca8d566ef0f9c