Optimum hydropower potential study on nine Brazilian drainage basins using a numerical algorithm

Thais Faria Costa (), Ivan Felipe Silva Santos (), Geraldo Lúcio Tiago Filho (), Regina Mambeli Barros () and Rosana Teixeira Miranda ()
Additional contact information
Thais Faria Costa: Federal University of Itajubá (UNIFEI - MG)
Ivan Felipe Silva Santos: Federal University of Itajubá (UNIFEI - MG)
Geraldo Lúcio Tiago Filho: Federal University of Itajubá (UNIFEI - MG)
Regina Mambeli Barros: Federal University of Itajubá (UNIFEI - MG)
Rosana Teixeira Miranda: Federal University of Itajubá (UNIFEI - MG)

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2021, vol. 23, issue 2, No 27, 1729-1758

Abstract: Abstract The proportion of hydroelectric participation in the Brazilian electricity matrix stretches beyond 65% of total energy generation, reaching around 248 GW. Much of this comes from the Amazon Basin, where more than half have not yet been explored. With the objective of assisting the development of hydroelectric plants in Brazil and other regions of the world, this study presents a numerical algorithm constructed from Scilab® software to calculate the optimum power for a hydropower plant that maximizes net financial benefits. The algorithm was applied to 57 fluviometric stations in nine drainage basins from different regions of Brazil, enabling the assessment of all relevant parameters for energy generation and economic analysis of hypothetical plants at each station, as well as analysis of the total hydroelectric energy potential of each basin. Energy potential in the studied basins exceeds 2 GW, generating more than 27 TWh/year. The economic results were related to energy, which allowed for a series of discussions about the hydroelectric market in Brazil. Finally, a study was conducted on the correlation between potential and the geometric, hydrological and perennial coefficients of the hydrographic basins. The correlations obtained were not satisfactory since heterogeneous and geographically distant hydrographic basins were used.

Keywords: Drainage basins; Scilab ®; Optimal hydroelectric power and maximum financial benefit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-020-00648-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s10668-020-00648-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-00648-7

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().