TY - JOUR
T1 - Systematic high-resolution assessment of global hydropower potential
AU - Hoes, Olivier
AU - Meijer, LJJ
AU - van der Ent, Ruud
AU - van de Giesen, Nick
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Population growth, increasing energy demand and the depletion of fossil fuel reserves necessitate a search for sustainable alternatives for electricity generation. Hydropower could replace a large part of the contribution of gas and oil to the present energy mix. However, previous high-resolution estimates of hydropower potential have been local, and have yet to be applied on a global scale. This study is the first to formally present a detailed evaluation of the hydropower potential of each location, based on slope and discharge of each river in the world. The gross theoretical hydropower potential is approximately 52 PWh/year divided over 11.8 million locations. This 52 PWh/year is equal to 33% of the annually required energy, while the present energy production by hydropower plants is just 3% of the annually required energy. The results of this study: all potentially interesting locations for hydroelectric power plants, are available online.
AB - Population growth, increasing energy demand and the depletion of fossil fuel reserves necessitate a search for sustainable alternatives for electricity generation. Hydropower could replace a large part of the contribution of gas and oil to the present energy mix. However, previous high-resolution estimates of hydropower potential have been local, and have yet to be applied on a global scale. This study is the first to formally present a detailed evaluation of the hydropower potential of each location, based on slope and discharge of each river in the world. The gross theoretical hydropower potential is approximately 52 PWh/year divided over 11.8 million locations. This 52 PWh/year is equal to 33% of the annually required energy, while the present energy production by hydropower plants is just 3% of the annually required energy. The results of this study: all potentially interesting locations for hydroelectric power plants, are available online.
UR - http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f2a3aa93-80cf-446b-b705-7dc05c80ce98
UR - https://doi.org/10.4121/uuid:99b42e30-5a69-4a53-8e77-c954f11dbc76
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0171844
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0171844
M3 - Article
SN - 1932-6203
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
ER -