The total energy demand in the transport sector represented 48.80% of the total consumption in Ecuador throughout 2016, where 89.87% corresponded to the road transport sector. Therefore, it is crucial to analyze the future behavior of this sector and assess the economic and environmental measures towards sustainable development. Consequently, this study analyzed: (1) the total energy demand for each vehicle class and fuel type; (2) the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and air pollutants NO x and PM 10 ; and (3) the cost attributed to the fuel demand, between 2016 and 2035. For this, four alternative demand scenarios were designed: BAU: Business As Usual; EOM: Energy Optimization and Mitigation; AF: Alternative Fuels; and SM: Sustainable Mobility using Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning system. After analysis, the EOM, AF, and SM scenarios have advantages relative to BAU, where SM particularly stands out. The results show that SM compared to BAU, contributes with a 12.14% (141,226 kBOE) decrease of the total energy demand, and the economic savings for this fuel demand is of 14.22% (26,720 MUSD). Moreover, global NO x and PM 10 emissions decreased by 14.91% and 13.78%, respectively. Additionally, accumulated GHG emissions decreased by 13.49% due to the improvement of the fuel quality for the vehicles that mainly consume liquefied petroleum gas, natural gas, and electricity.Sustainability 2020, 12, 472 2 of 26 consumption levels related to liquid fuels, they have a faster growth forecast of approximately three times between 2015 and 2040. For example, the consumption of natural gas for passenger and cargo transport would increase by almost 500% in the same period [5].Between 2000 and 2012, in several Latin American countries, the energy demand in the road transport sector has been continuously increasing with high intensity every year; in Paraguay, it grew by 11%, in Panama and Bolivia by 5%, in Argentina and Costa Rica by 4% [6]. This trend has remained relatively constant, generating a significant increase in the vehicle fleet, with a 3.5% average each year, which is mainly composed of cars [7].In 2012, in the countries of this same region, the transport sector had a total energy consumption share of 27% in the case of Nicaragua to 55% in the case of Ecuador. Inside this sector, road transport demanded around 85% of the total energy consumption, excluding Panama, where air transport continues to be very significant with 30% of the total energy consumption in the transport sector due to its geographical condition [8].The high levels of liquid petroleum fuels consumption in road transport cause great concern at the global level but mainly in emerging market countries such as India, China, the United States of America, and large regions such as the European Union, Latin America, Southeast Asian, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, which are the world's most energy demanded.This concern is primarily related to the following reasons: (1) the localized polluting gases emissions within cities that reduce the ...

The present review compares and takes the main ideas around hydropower development in eight countries of the American continent, identifying its advantages and disadvantages, showing a vision concerning sustainability. It is conclusive that there are impacts for each megawatt produced with hydropower, and the generation structure that uses the water resource of natural currents is not highly clean. Moreover, there is the mistaken criterion for developing a renewable hydropower project related to sustainability, a wrong approach, as demonstrated with the review. The examination in the eight countries of America some analyzes and the most concludes that, before considering a construction with thousands of dollars of investment and water contained in dams, the social and environmental analysis must respond to the restrictions on building new hydropower projects, promoting other unconventional renewable energy sources development. It is recommended to determine an objective quantitative approach of hydropower combining hydrology, energy efficiency, and interaction scenarios of future climate change to know the best energy grids diversifying balanced renewable and no renewable sources for each country.

This study aims to evaluate the water use characteristics of five hydropower stations in Ecuador, Uruguay, and Argentina to verify if the resource will change by their use on energy production, mainly to natural dam flow. The methodology is quantitative by taking water before inlet of the generation turbines (up-stream) and outlet of discharge after the process (downstream), there are ten samples to study for each one, at eleven physical-chemical parameters (three physical and eight chemical). This study found that hydropower projects analyzed present changes between inlet dammed water and outlet water from the turbine after generating electricity. The measured parameters are variables, some ranges demonstrate large deviations, for example, total dissolved solids with 100 mg/l, total solids 93 mg/l, and hardness 46 mg/l. There are differences between upstream and downstream water quality because the projects with dams stagnate the source of increasing development of the solids, verifying that the expansion of the extensive infrastructures, such as dams, generates the suspended matter presence, compared to outlet water at the discharge stage, these materials are clay, silt, organic material, vegetation decomposition, and living bodies such as algae, snails, and floating plants that produce opacity, which is the reason for the color difference in the samples. It recommends monthly sustainability plans for all hydropower projects to check the water conditions and ecosystems, monitoring climate behavior to issue improvements or fixes continuously.

La hidroelectricidad es la mayor fuente renovable globalmente utilizada, para el 2020 ésta constituye el 77% de la matriz energética en Ecuador, pero los costos con los cuales se desarrollan estos proyectos generan el cuestionamiento entre el costo y beneficio de dichas inversiones debido a los impactos sociales, ambientales y culturales que se crean. Mediante una metodología cuantitativa en base a términos de inclusión y exclusión se encontró que las ultimas cinco centrales hidroeléctricas del Ecuador inauguradas en el período 2015 – 2019 contienen costos más altos del promedio global en comparación con el cálculo de la Agencia Internacional de las Energías Renovables, específicamente, para Coca Codo Sinclair se tiene un 79% de incremento, 34% para Sopladora, 21% para Minas San Francisco, 12% para Delsintagua y 119% para la central Manduriacu. Además, el costo promedio globalmente calculado por IRENA en el 2020 fue 1,472 USD/kWh, en el caso promedio de 499 MW del Ecuador se tiene un costo de 2,018 USD/kWh, valor 37% adicional a manera comparativa. Las decisiones de inversión en nuevos proyectos hidroeléctricos deben mejorarse con base en los datos de las plantas existentes, buscando mitigar los impactos, generando un análisis crítico y definiendo las metas del país con las poblaciones involucradas.