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Water consumption from hydropower plants – review of published estimates and an assessment of the concept

Bakken, Tor Haakon; Killingtveit, Ånund; Engeland, Kolbjørn; Alfredsen, Knut; Harby, Atle
Journal article, Peer reviewed
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URI
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2357855
Date
2013
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  • Institutt for maskinteknikk og produksjon [2530]
  • Publikasjoner fra CRIStin - NTNU [19817]
Original version
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 2013, 17:3983-4000   10.5194/hess-17-3983-2013
Abstract
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 oversimplistic

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.
Publisher
European Geosciences Union
Journal
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences

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