Small hydropower: water for energy

Luigi Papetti

ESHA

ESHA OBJECTIVES

• Promotion of SHP with an installed capacity up to 10

MW

Lobbying for SHP on European level (European

Parliament, European Commission, etc.)

Support for national SHP associations

Information, dissemination, and awareness raising

for SHP issues (publications, workshops,

conferences)

Research on SHP issues (EC-contracts in different

programs)

SMALL HYDRO DEFINITION

“Hydroelectric power plant with an installed

(maximum) capacity up to 10 MW”

A small hydro plant (6,7 MW)

Another small hydro plant (pico hydro, 600 W)

This is Large Hydro

This is the Largest Hydro ever

What do we pay for?

Power

Energy

Rule of thumb for run-of-river plants

E [kWh] = P [kW] x 4.500 [h]

P [kW] ~ Q [m3/s] x H [m] x 7,8

P = electrical power output

Q = rated discharge

H = net head

EU-27 Electricity mix (2004)

Source: EC-DG TREN Eurostat

  2004 2010 2020

  TWh % TWh % TWh %

Wind 58.5 13.4% 194 27.4% 530 40.6%

PV 0.74 0.2% 7.5 1.1% 55 4.2%

Biomass for electricity 67.9 15.6% 138 19.5% 300 23.0%

Hydro 303.8 69.6% 356 50.3% 384 29.4%

Geothermal 5.5 1.3% 7 1.0% 14 1.1%

Solar thermal electricity 0 0.0% 2 0.3% 9 0.7%

Ocean 0 0.0% 3 0.4% 15 1.1%

Totale RES 436.44 100% 707.5 100.0% 1307 100.0%

EU-27 Renewables mix

Source: EREC

Potential

economic - exploited ~ 250 TWh/year ~ 55 GW installed capacity

technical – economic ~ 450 TWh/year ~ 100 GW installed capacity

Perspectives

• multipurpose plants (electricity production combined with drinking water supply systems, waste water treatment plants, irrigation channels)

• low-head and very low head plants. It is estimated that 1 to 1.5 GW can be installed in Europe using existing dams, weirs, irrigation infrastructures etc, with a very low environmental impact as the infrastructure already exists

THE END

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