Water Footprints of Hydropower Projects

Abstract

As the world is shifting towards renewable energy power generation it becomes important to explore the correct picture of renewable energy technologies. Today every nation is ramping up investments in power sector and trying to increase its installed capacity of power generation through renewable energy due to benefits like less greenhouse gas emissions, less environmental impacts etc. associated with it. But at the same time it is being observed that it is important to assess the renewable energy technologies to find out their real environmental impacts. Among all renewable energy sources, hydropower is becoming the most popular and promising source throughout the world. The power generation through hydropower is solely depends on the availability of water resources so formation of large dams and reservoirs are associated with establishment of a hydropower plant. The effects of climate change affect the water resources throughout the world as well. Large scale reservoirs can be found as key players for low carbon and sustainable society in future. Consequently, it becomes important to assess the consumption of water from hydropower generation in terms of water footprints. This chapter reviews the estimation of water footprints of hydropower plants through different methodologies and come out to the conclusion that there is still requirement of an effective methodology for water footprints calculation of hydropower projects.