False Shades of Green: The Case of Brazilian Amazonian Hydropower

James Kahn, Carlos Edwar Freitas and Miguel Petrere
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Carlos Edwar Freitas: Department of Fishery Science, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Av. Rodrigo Otávio 3000, Manaus, AM 69077-000, Brazil
Miguel Petrere: Programa de Pós-graduação em Diversidade Biológica e Conservação (PPGDBC), Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias para a Sustentabilidade (CCTS), Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), Rod. João Leme dos Santos, km 110 – Sorocaba, São Paulo 18052-780, Brazil

Energies, 2014, vol. 7, issue 9, 1-20

Abstract: The Federal Government of Brazil has ambitious plans to build a system of 58 additional hydroelectric dams in the Brazilian Amazon, with Hundreds of additional dams planned for other countries in the watershed. Although hydropower is often billed as clean energy, we argue that the environmental impacts of this project are likely to be large, and will result in substantial loss of biodiversity, as well as changes in the flows of ecological services. Moreover, the projects will generate significant greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and decay of organic matter in the reservoirs. These emissions are equivalent to the five years of emissions that would be generated by gas powered plants of equivalent capacity. In addition, we examine the economic benefits of the hydropower in comparison to new alternatives, such as photovoltaic energy and wind power. We find that current costs of hydropower exceed alternatives, and the costs of costs of these alternatives are likely to fall substantially below those of hydropower, while the environmental damages from the dams will be extensive and irreversible.

Keywords: Amazonian dams; biodiversity; fishery dynamics; extinction; environmental policy; energy policy (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: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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