Open AccessGlobal hydropower expansion without building new dams
Author(s) -
Kayla Garrett,
Ryan A. McManamay,
Jida Wang
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
environmental research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.37
H-Index - 124
ISSN - 1748-9326
DOI - 10.1088/1748-9326/ac2f18
Subject(s) - hydropower , renewable energy , environmental science , small hydro , biodiversity , fossil fuel , environmental resource management , ecosystem , hydroelectricity , natural resource economics , business , ecology , economics , biology
Reducing global carbon emissions will require large-scale transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energy resources. Hydropower will likely play a role in those transitions as it provides reliable energy storage while counter-balancing intermittent renewables. However, the construction of new dams comes at significant environmental costs to river ecosystems. An optimal future considers how to maximize the benefits of hydropower while minimizing environmental impact through revitalizing existing infrastructures. Herein, we quantify this potential using a spatially comprehensive global inventory of geolocated dams used for purposes other than hydropower, and augment these results with modelled estimates of small, unmapped dams. Furthermore, we examine increases in hydropower potential from efficiency upgrades at existing hydro-plants. These opportunities afford non-invasive increases in hydropower in populated areas neighbouring biodiversity hot spots. Overall, we estimate that these contributions could potentially provide up to a 9% increase to current global hydropower, potentially reducing the costs of construction and transmission, all while offsetting impacts to biodiversity and river ecosystems incurred by planned new hydropower construction.