Analysis of Small Hydropower Generation Potential: (2) Future Prospect of the Potential under Climate Change

Jaewon Jung, Sungeun Jung, Junhyeong Lee, Myungjin Lee and Hung Soo Kim
Additional contact information
Jaewon Jung: Institute of Water Resources System, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Korea
Sungeun Jung: Division of Computer Science and Engineering, Sahmyook University, Seoul 139742, Korea
Junhyeong Lee: Department of Civil Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Korea
Myungjin Lee: Department of Civil Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Korea
Hung Soo Kim: Department of Civil Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Korea

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-26

Abstract: The interest in renewable energy to replace fossil fuel is increasing as the problem caused by climate change has become more severe. In this study, small hydropower (SHP) was evaluated as a resource with high development value because of its high energy density compared to other renewable energy sources. SHP may be an attractive and sustainable power generation environmental perspective because of its potential to be found in small rivers and streams. The power generation potential could be estimated based on the discharge in the river basin. Since the river discharge depends on the climate conditions, the hydropower generation potential changes sensitively according to climate variability. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the SHP potential in consideration of future climate change. In this study, the future prospect of SHP potential is simulated for the period of 2021 to 2100 considering the climate change in three hydropower plants of Deoksong, Hanseok, and Socheon stations, Korea. The results show that SHP potential for the near future (2021 to 2040) shows a tendency to be increased, and the highest increase is 23.4% at the Deoksong SPH plant. Through the result of future prospect, we have shown that hydroelectric power generation capacity or SHP potential will be increased in the future. Therefore, we believe that it is necessary to revitalize the development of SHP to expand the use of renewable energy. In addition, a methodology presented in this study could be used for the future prospect of the SHP potential.

Keywords: climate change scenario; generation potential; hydropower; renewable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/11/3001/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/11/3001/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:11:p:3001-:d:559868

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().