Abstract
In Romania, the hydropower is the main form of renewable source with an important share in energy mix. Despite their valuable advantages on supplying energy and balancing the energy system, public acceptance, environmental, social and economic impact has become a common challenge in development of hydropower projects. Increasing of water consumption and raising awareness regarding available water resources leads to an integrated management approach of them. In this paper the water footprint is estimated for one of the largest Romanian hydropower project, namely Hydropower Plant Vidraru. The water footprint from hydroelectricity is evaluated considering electricity production of the hydropower plant, water footprint of dam construction and three different approaches to quantify water footprint of the reservoir: gross water consumption, net water consumption and water balance. Also, water footprint is assessed based on economic value of the reservoir using allocation coefficients for various purposes of the reservoir. It is estimated that economic benefit of the reservoir is 81.92·106 €/y, with hydroelectricity major contributor.
Highlights
The evolution towards modern society leads to increasing of the water consumption
To have an indicator for water consumption, it was introduced the concept of water footprint (WF) [2]
Analysing evapotranspiration in Romania from 1961 to 2013 it was found that between altitude of 250 and 500 meters evapotranspiration varies in the range 400 - 600 mm/y, and above 1250 meters’ evapotranspiration falls below 400 mm/y, [47]
Summary
The evolution towards modern society leads to increasing of the water consumption. Because of limited water resources the available ones have started to decrease and many regions experience water stress. Freshwater has almost always been used in human activities regardless of the quantity and without considering the environmental impact. It is found that the global consumption of freshwater resources has increased six times in the last century [1]. To have an indicator for water consumption, it was introduced the concept of water footprint (WF) [2]. The water footprint considers the volume of freshwater consumed and polluted to realize a product along its supply chain, [3], considering a life-cycle assessment perspective. WF is recommended by some authors to be a component in evaluation of newly project proposals for hydropower plants, [4]
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