The albedo–climate penalty of hydropower reservoirs

Wohlfahrt, Georg; Tomelleri, Enrico; Hammerle, Albin

doi:10.1038/s41560-021-00784-y

Cited by 31 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…A more complete integration of reservoir functionality in ESMs will therefore allow to quantify water availability and hydropower potential in future climate simulations, and to study the combined effects of reservoirs and other management activities like irrigation. In addition, the positive radiative forcing of reservoirs, due to the decrease in albedo, might be relevant to consider in climate impact studies (Wohlfahrt et al., 2021). With hundreds of new reservoirs being constructed or planned worldwide, these reservoir effects may even become more important in the future.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulating the Impact of Global Reservoir Expansion on the Present‐Day Climate

et al. 2021

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Humans are fundamentally altering the terrestrial water cycle by changing freshwater storage and flows (Abbott et al., 2019;Rockström et al., 2009). The most important human interventions in the natural hydrological cycle include the construction of large dams and the artificial reservoirs thereby created, groundwater pumping leading to aquifer depletion, diverging streamflow for irrigating crops, and inter-basin water transfers (

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulating the Impact of Global Reservoir Expansion on the Present‐Day Climate

et al. 2021

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“…This product is a monthly assessment of the maximum radiative forcing resulting from a change in surface albedo, derived from remote sensing observations and serves as an alternative to radiative transfer models in global climate models. The kernel has been applied in other studies to calculate the albedo radiative forcing generated by, e.g., hydro-power reservoirs, bioenergy plantations, and boreal vegetation shifts under climate change (Sieber et al, 2020;Webb et al, 2021;Wohlfahrt et al, 2021).…”

Section: Albedomentioning

confidence: 99%

Combined Carbon and Albedo Climate Forcing From Pine and Switchgrass Grown for Bioenergy

Ahlswede¹,

O’Halloran²,

Thomas³

2022

Front. For. Glob. Change

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Expanding and restoring forests decreases atmospheric carbon dioxide, a natural solution for helping mitigate climate change. However, forests also have relatively low albedo compared to grass and croplands, which increases the amount of solar energy they absorb into the climate system. An alternative natural climate solution is to replace fossil fuels with bioenergy. Bioenergy crops such as switchgrass have higher albedo than forest ecosystems but absorb less total carbon over their lifetime. To evaluate trade-offs in the mitigation potential by pine and switchgrass ecosystems, we used eddy covariance net ecosystem exchange and albedo observations collected from planted pine forests and switchgrass fields in eastern North America and Canada to compare the net radiative forcing of these two ecosystems over the length of typical pine rotation (30 years). We found that pine had a net positive radiative forcing (warming) of 5.4 ± 2.8 Wm−2 when albedo and carbon were combined together (30 year mean). However the assumptions regarding the fate of harvested carbon had an important effect on the net radiative forcing. When we assumed all switchgrass carbon was emitted to the atmosphere while the harvested pine carbon was prevented from entering the atmosphere, the 30-year mean net radiative forcing reversed direction (−3.6 ± 2.8 Wm−2). Overall, while the pine ecosystem absorbed more carbon than the switchgrass, the difference in albedo was large enough to result in similar climate mitigation potential at the 30-year horizon between the two systems, whereby the direction and magnitude of radiative forcing depends on the fate of harvested carbon.

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“…In the same manner, Maeck et al 56 searched the effect of damming on methane and carbon emissions in a central European impounded river, claiming that sedimentation-driven methane emissions from dammed river hot spot sites can potentially increase global freshwater emissions by up to 7%. On the other hand, Wohlfahrt et al 57 explored the impact of hydropower on environmental destruction, suggesting that future hydropower plants need to minimize the albedo penalty to make a meaningful contribution towards limiting global warming. In the same way, Xia and Wang explored the effect of fossil fuel and hydropower on carbon dioxide emissions in China, claiming that hydropower consumption can significantly reduce carbon dioxide releases.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving toward sustainable environment: The effects of hydropower industry on water quality in EU economies

Alsaleh

Abdul‐Rahim

2021

Energy & Environment

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This research investigates the effect of hydropower yields on water quality in European Union participating nations from 1990 to 2019. Integrating the panel fully modified ordinary least squares, the outcomes show that water quality degradation increase with a rise in hydropower production growth. Similarly, fossil fuel, economic growth and population density are found to be increasing water resource pollution. While institutional quality is found to decrease water quality degradation and water resource pollution. The finding implies that water quality degradation in the EU27 region can be effectively increased by increasing the amount of hydropower production in sustainability procedures. This will increasingly influence the status of climate change. The evaluated outcomes are observed to be valid as they were authenticated with the panel dynamic ordinary least square and pooled ordinary least square. Therefore, it attests to the paper's uniqueness, input to the body of knowledge and novelty. The research suggests that for EU27 nations have to enhance the role of the hydropower industry in their energy mix to achieve Energy Union objectives taking into consideration the water resources pollution factor. Authorities in these nations must also focus more on investing in the growth of the hydropower industry to add more to its production and availability of renewable energy and decrease water quality degradation. The government of these nations can similarly stress the competence and sustainability of hydropower production and water resource conservation to reach energy security and reduce water quality degradation.

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The albedo–climate penalty of hydropower reservoirs

Cited by 31 publications

References 54 publications

Simulating the Impact of Global Reservoir Expansion on the Present‐Day Climate

Simulating the Impact of Global Reservoir Expansion on the Present‐Day Climate

Combined Carbon and Albedo Climate Forcing From Pine and Switchgrass Grown for Bioenergy

Moving toward sustainable environment: The effects of hydropower industry on water quality in EU economies

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