The value of tropical forests to hydropower

Rafael Araujo

Energy Economics, 2024, vol. 129, issue C

Abstract: Tropical forests have a significant impact on rainfall patterns at a continental scale, thereby influencing water supply for energy generation of hydropower plants. I develop a method to value this ecosystem service using an econometric climate model that connects tropical deforestation with rainfall. As an application, I estimate the impact that Amazon deforestation has on the power generation capacity of the Teles Pires hydropower plant in Brazil, one of the ten largest plants in a country where hydropower is the main source of energy. In an ex-post analysis, I map the currently deforested regions in the Amazon with the highest restoration values for the hydroelectric. In an ex-ante analysis, I map the potential cost of deforesting Indigenous Territories. The results provide evidence of the importance of the ecosystem services of tropical forests to the energy sector.

Keywords: Deforestation; Amazon; Energy; Climate; Hydropower plants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L94 Q23 Q25 Q54 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014098832300703X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:129:y:2024:i:c:s014098832300703x

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2023.107205

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Economics is currently edited by R. S. J. Tol, Beng Ang, Lance Bachmeier, Perry Sadorsky, Ugur Soytas and J. P. Weyant

More articles in Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().