scholarly journals Climate Change Effects on Hydropower in Mozambique

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (14) ◽  
pp. 4842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Meque Uamusse ◽  
Kamshat Tussupova ◽  
Kenneth M Persson

The impact of climate change on the production of hydropower in Mozambique is reviewed and regression analysis is applied to evaluate future climate scenarios. The results show that climate change will cause increased variability of precipitation and create flooding that can damage infrastructure such as hydropower dams. Climate change can also cause drought that will decrease surface water and reduce hydroelectric generation in Mozambique. Electricity generation is to a major extent performed through large-scale hydropower in Mozambique. To fulfill the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and an increased demand for electricity, several large and many small hydropower projects are planned and were built in the country. The economic lifetime of a hydropower plant is typically 100 years, meaning that the hydrologic regimes for the plants should be evaluated for at least this period. Climate change effects are rarely included in present feasibility studies. Economic implications associated with climate change phenomena are higher in Mozambique than in neighboring countries as its future electricity demand to a large extent is forecasted to be met by hydropower. The large hydropower potential in Mozambique should as well be considered when investing in new power plants in southern Africa.

Significance COP22 has been dubbed "the COP of action, adaptation and Africa". It is a key opportunity to build confidence in the system of global cooperation adopted at the Paris Climate Conference. The Paris meeting ushered in a new framework for cooperation on climate change based on voluntary emissions reductions targets that will be jointly reviewed every five years. Negotiators gathering in Marrakech for COP22 face the task of making the Paris Agreement work -- and delivering results on a sufficiently large scale. Impacts Cooperation under the Paris framework will help reduce climate change effects, though overshooting of the 2 degree target is inevitable. The Paris deal's reliance on peer pressure and self-policing will risk national-level backsliding during the implementation process. Actions taken in the next ten years will determine the impact of climate change on global growth prospects for the whole of this century.


Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roya Mousavi ◽  
Mojtaba Ahmadizadeh ◽  
Safar Marofi

In this paper, the impact of climate change on the climate and discharge of the Dez Dam Basin and the hydropower potential of two hydropower plants (Bakhtiari and Dez) is investigated based on the downscaled outputs of six GCMs (General Circulation Models) and three SRES (Special Report on Emission Scenarios) scenarios for the early, mid and late 21st century. Projections of all the scenarios and GCMs revealed a significant rise in temperature (up to 4.9 °C) and slight to moderate variation in precipitation (up to 18%). Outputs of the HBV hydrologic model, enforced by projected datasets, show a reduction of the annual flow by 33% under the climate change condition. Further, analyzing the induced changes in the inflow and hydropower generation potential of the Bakhtiari and Dez dams showed that both inflow and hydropower generation is significantly affected by climate change. For the Bakhtiari dam, this indicates a consistent reduction of inflow (up to 27%) and electricity generation (up to 32%). While, in the Dez dam case, the inflow is projected to decrease (up to 22%) and the corresponding hydropower is expected to slightly increase (up to 3%). This contrasting result for the Dez dam is assessed based on its reservoir and hydropower plant capacity, as well as other factors such as the timely releases to meet different demands and flow regime changes under climate change. The results show that the Bakhtiari reservoir and power plant will not meet the design-capacity outputs under the climate change condition as its large capacity cannot be fully utilized; while there is room for the further development of the Dez power plant. Comparing the results of the applied GCMs showed high discrepancies among the outputs of different models.


Author(s):  
Nima Ehsani ◽  
Charles J. Vörösmarty ◽  
Balázs M. Fekete ◽  
Eugene Z. Stakhiv

A large-scale, high-resolution, fully coupled hydrological/reservoir/hydroelectricity model is used to investigate the impacts of climate change on hydroelectricity generation and hydropower potential of non-powered dams across the Northeast United States megaregion with 11,037 dams and 375 hydroelectric power plants. The model is calibrated and validated using the U.S. Department of Energy records. Annual hydroelectricity generation in the region is 41 Terawatt-hours (Twh). Our estimate of the hydropower potential of non-powered dams adds up to 350 Twh. West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York have significant potential for generating more hydroelectricity from already existing dams. On the other hand, this potential virtually does not exist for Rhode Island and Delaware and is small for New Jersey and Vermont. Climate change may reduce annual hydropower potential from non-powered dams by up to 13% and reduce current annual hydroelectricity generation by up to 8% annually. Increased rainfall in winters and earlier snowmelt in springs result in an increase in regional water availability in December through March. In other months, reduced precipitation and increased potential evapotranspiration rates combined with reduced recharge from the shift in spring snowmelt and smaller snowpack result in a decrease in availability of water and thus hydroelectricity generation. This changes call for the recalibration of dam operations and may raise conflict of interests in multipurpose dams.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alba de la Vara ◽  
William Cabos ◽  
Dmitry V. Sein ◽  
Claas Teichmann ◽  
Daniela Jacob

AbstractIn this work we use a regional atmosphere–ocean coupled model (RAOCM) and its stand-alone atmospheric component to gain insight into the impact of atmosphere–ocean coupling on the climate change signal over the Iberian Peninsula (IP). The IP climate is influenced by both the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean sea. Complex interactions with the orography take place there and high-resolution models are required to realistically reproduce its current and future climate. We find that under the RCP8.5 scenario, the generalized 2-m air temperature (T2M) increase by the end of the twenty-first century (2070–2099) in the atmospheric-only simulation is tempered by the coupling. The impact of coupling is specially seen in summer, when the warming is stronger. Precipitation shows regionally-dependent changes in winter, whilst a drier climate is found in summer. The coupling generally reduces the magnitude of the changes. Differences in T2M and precipitation between the coupled and uncoupled simulations are caused by changes in the Atlantic large-scale circulation and in the Mediterranean Sea. Additionally, the differences in projected changes of T2M and precipitation with the RAOCM under the RCP8.5 and RCP4.5 scenarios are tackled. Results show that in winter and summer T2M increases less and precipitation changes are of a smaller magnitude with the RCP4.5. Whilst in summer changes present a similar regional distribution in both runs, in winter there are some differences in the NW of the IP due to differences in the North Atlantic circulation. The differences in the climate change signal from the RAOCM and the driving Global Coupled Model show that regionalization has an effect in terms of higher resolution over the land and ocean.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 266
Author(s):  
Md Rakibuzzaman ◽  
Sang-Ho Suh ◽  
Hyoung-Ho Kim ◽  
Youngtae Ryu ◽  
Kyung Yup Kim

Discharge water from fish farms is a clean, renewable, and abundant energy source that has been used to obtain renewable energy via small hydropower plants. Small hydropower plants may be installed at offshore fish farms where suitable water is obtained throughout the year. It is necessary to meet the challenges of developing small hydropower systems, including sustainability and turbine efficiency. The main objective of this study was to investigate the possibility of constructing a small hydropower plant and develop 100 kW class propeller-type turbines in a fish farm with a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG). The turbine was optimized using a computer simulation, and an experiment was conducted to obtain performance data. Simulation results were then validated with experimental results. Results revealed that streamlining the designed shape of the guide vane reduced the flow separation and improved the efficiency of the turbine. Optimizing the shape of the runner vane decreased the flow rate, reducing the water power and increasing the efficiency by about 5.57%. Also, results revealed that tubular or cross-flow turbines could be suitable for use in fish farm power plants, and the generator used should be waterproofed to avoid exposure to seawater.


Author(s):  
Michalis I. Vousdoukas ◽  
Dimitrios Bouziotas ◽  
Alessio Giardino ◽  
Laurens M. Bouwer ◽  
Evangelos Voukouvalas ◽  
...  

Abstract. An upscaling of flood risk assessment frameworks beyond regional and national scales has taken place during recent years, with a number of large-scale models emerging as tools for hotspot identification, support for international policy-making and harmonization of climate change adaptation strategies. There is, however, limited insight on the scaling effects and structural limitations of flood risk models and, therefore, the underlying uncertainty. In light of this, we examine key sources of epistemic uncertainty in the Coastal Flood Risk (CFR) modelling chain: (i) the inclusion and interaction of different hydraulic components leading to extreme sea-level (ESL); (ii) inundation modelling; (iii) the underlying uncertainty in the Digital Elevation Model (DEM); (iv) flood defence information; (v) the assumptions behind the use of depth-damage functions that express vulnerability; and (vi) different climate change projections. The impact of these uncertainties to estimated Expected Annual Damage (EAD) for present and future climates is evaluated in a dual case study in Faro, Portugal and in the Iberian Peninsula. The ranking of the uncertainty factors varies among the different case studies, baseline CFR estimates, as well as their absolute/relative changes. We find that uncertainty from ESL contributions, and in particular the way waves are treated, can be higher than the uncertainty of the two greenhouse gas emission projections and six climate models that are used. Of comparable importance is the quality of information on coastal protection levels and DEM information. In the absence of large-extent datasets with sufficient resolution and accuracy the latter two factors are the main bottlenecks in terms of large-scale CFR assessment quality.


2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 2235-2262
Author(s):  
E. Joigneaux ◽  
P. Albéric ◽  
H. Pauwels ◽  
C. Pagé ◽  
L. Terray ◽  
...  

Abstract. Under certain hydrological conditions it is possible for spring flow in karst systems to be reversed. When this occurs, the resulting invasion by surface water, i.e. the backflooding, represents a serious threat to groundwater quality because the surface water could well be contaminated. Here we examine the possible impact of future climate change on the occurrences of backflooding in a specific karst system, having first established the occurrence of such events in the selected study area over the past 40 yr. It would appear that backflooding has been more frequent since the 1980s, and that it is apparently linked to river flow variability on the pluri-annual scale. The avenue that we adopt here for studying recent and future variations of these events is based on a downscaling algorithm relating large-scale atmospheric circulation to local precipitation spatial patterns. The large-scale atmospheric circulation is viewed as a set of quasi-stationary and recurrent states, called weather types, and its variability as the transition between them. Based on a set of climate model projections, simulated changes in weather-type occurrence for the end of the century suggests that backflooding events can be expected to decrease in 2075–2099. If such is the case, then the potential risk for groundwater quality in the area will be greatly reduced compared to the current situation. Finally, our results also show the potential interest of the weather-type based downscaling approach for examining the impact of climate change on hydrological systems.


Author(s):  
Lin Tian ◽  
Baojun Jiang ◽  
Yifan Xu

Problem definition: Mobile communications technologies and online platforms have enabled large-scale consumer-to-consumer (C2C) sharing of their underutilized products. This paper studies a manufacturer’s optimal entry strategy in the product-sharing market and the economic implications of its entry. Academic/practical relevance: Sharing of products or services among consumers has experienced dramatic growth in recent years. The impact of C2C sharing on traditional firms can be very significant. In response to C2C product sharing, many manufacturers (e.g., General Motors and BMW) have entered the product-sharing market to provide business-to-consumer (B2C) rental services in addition to outright sales to consumers. Methodology: We employ a game-theoretic analytical model for our analysis. Results: Our analysis shows that when C2C sharing has a low transaction cost and the manufacturer’s marginal cost of production is not very high, the manufacturer will find it not optimal to offer its own rental services to consumers. In contrast, when the C2C sharing transaction cost is high or the manufacturer’s marginal cost of production is high, the manufacturer should offer enough units of the products for rental to squeeze out C2C sharing (in expectation). When the C2C-sharing transaction cost and the manufacturer’s marginal cost are both in the middle ranges, the manufacturer’s rental services and the C2C sharing will coexist, in which case the manufacturer’s entry in the sharing market may reduce the total number of units of the product in the whole market, but increase the consumer surplus and the social welfare. This reduced number of products due to the manufacturer’s B2C rental service also suggests less environmental impact from production. Managerial implications: The production cost and the C2C sharing transaction cost play critical roles in determining the manufacturer’s optimal quantity to use for its B2C rental services and the equilibrium outcome. In some situations, the manufacturer’s entry in the sharing market provides not only economic benefits to the firm and consumers, but also environmental benefits to the society as a whole.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Gauvain ◽  
Ronan Abhervé ◽  
Jean-Raynald de Dreuzy ◽  
Luc Aquilina ◽  
Frédéric Gresselin

<p>Like in other relatively flat coastal areas, flooding by aquifer overflow is a recurring problem on the western coast of Normandy (France). Threats are expected to be enhanced by the rise of the sea level and to have critical consequences on the future development and management of the territory. The delineation of the increased saturation areas is a required step to assess the impact of climate change locally. Preliminary models showed that vulnerability does not result only from the sea side but also from the continental side through the modifications of the hydrological regime.</p><p>We investigate the processes controlling these coastal flooding phenomena by using hydrogeological models calibrated at large scale with an innovative method reproducing the hydrographic network. Reference study sites selected for their proven sensitivity to flooding have been used to validate the methodology and determine the influence of the different geomorphological configurations frequently encountered along the coastal line.</p><p>Hydrogeological models show that the rise of the sea level induces an irregular increase in coastal aquifer saturations extending up to several kilometers inland. Back-littoral channels traditionally used as a large-scale drainage system against high tides limits the propagation of aquifer saturation upstream, provided that channels are not dominantly under maritime influence. High seepage fed by increased recharge occurring in climatic extremes may extend the vulnerable areas and further limit the effectiveness of the drainage system. Local configurations are investigated to categorize the influence of the local geological and geomorphological structures and upscale it at the regional scale.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remi Meynadier ◽  
Hugo Rakotoarimanga ◽  
Madeleine-Sophie Deroche ◽  
Sylvain Buisine

<p>The large-scale and complex nature of climate change makes it difficult to assess and quantify the impact on insurance activities. Climate change is likely affecting the probability of natural hazard occurrence in terms of severity and/or frequency.</p><p>Natural catastrophe risk is a function of hazard, exposure and vulnerability. As a (re)-insurer it is seen that changes in year-on-year losses are a function of all these components and not just the hazard.</p><p>The present study focuses, in a first step, on assessing impacts of climate change on fluvial flood risks in Europe solely due to changes in hazard itself. A stochastic catalogue of future flood risk events is derived from Pan-European data sets of river flood probability of occurrence produced within EU FP7 RAIN project. The loss modelling framework internally developed at AXA is then used to provide a geographical view of changes in future flood risks.</p><p> </p>


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