IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/waterr/v26y2012i5p1231-1252.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Variations in Discharge Volumes for Hydropower Generation in Switzerland

Author

Listed:
  • Pascal Hänggi
  • Rolf Weingartner

Abstract

This study analyses the way climatic variations over the last century impacted the volumes of water available for hydropower production in Switzerland. The analysis relied on virtual intakes located all over Switzerland, which were assumed to be fed by water from mesoscale catchments. Intake capacities were designed using flow duration curves. The results show that the overall warming and increased winter precipitation observed in recent decades have led to more balanced discharge behaviours in rivers and more favourable conditions for electricity production than most periods in the past. In lower-altitude regions of Switzerland, the annual volume of water available for electricity production has not changed significantly; however, significantly more water is available in winters, while less is available during summers. In higher-altitude regions like the Swiss Alps, especially in glaciated catchment areas, significantly more water is available in both seasons; in other words, the annual volume of water available for hydropower production is significantly higher in these areas when compared to earlier periods. Comparison of these results with the actual amount of hydroelectricity produced over the same period reveals that hydrological variations cannot fully explain the variations in power production observed. Plant-specific analyses are needed of the impact of climatic changes on water management. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Pascal Hänggi & Rolf Weingartner, 2012. "Variations in Discharge Volumes for Hydropower Generation in Switzerland," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 26(5), pages 1231-1252, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:26:y:2012:i:5:p:1231-1252
    DOI: 10.1007/s11269-011-9956-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11269-011-9956-1
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11269-011-9956-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lorenzo Alfieri & Paolo Perona & Paolo Burlando, 2006. "Optimal Water Allocation for an Alpine Hydropower System Under Changing Scenarios," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 20(5), pages 761-778, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Muhammad Azmat & Francesco Laio & Davide Poggi, 2015. "Estimation of Water Resources Availability and Mini-Hydro Productivity in High-Altitude Scarcely-Gauged Watershed," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(14), pages 5037-5054, November.
    2. Ludovic Gaudard & Manfred Gilli & Franco Romerio, 2013. "Climate Change Impacts on Hydropower Management," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(15), pages 5143-5156, December.
    3. Richard Arsenault & François Brissette & Jean-Stéphane Malo & Marie Minville & Robert Leconte, 2013. "Structural and Non-Structural Climate Change Adaptation Strategies for the Péribonka Water Resource System," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(7), pages 2075-2087, May.
    4. Schaefli, Bettina & Manso, Pedro & Fischer, Mauro & Huss, Matthias & Farinotti, Daniel, 2019. "The role of glacier retreat for Swiss hydropower production," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 615-627.
    5. Claude Boris Amougou & David Tsuanyo & Davide Fioriti & Joseph Kenfack & Abdoul Aziz & Patrice Elé Abiama, 2022. "LCOE-Based Optimization for the Design of Small Run-of-River Hydropower Plants," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-35, October.
    6. Fernandes, Gláucia & Gomes, Leonardo Lima & Brandão, Luiz Eduardo Teixeira, 2018. "A risk-hedging tool for hydro power plants," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 370-378.
    7. François, B. & Zoccatelli, D. & Borga, M., 2017. "Assessing small hydro/solar power complementarity in ungauged mountainous areas: A crash test study for hydrological prediction methods," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 716-729.
    8. François, B. & Puspitarini, H.D. & Volpi, E. & Borga, M., 2022. "Statistical analysis of electricity supply deficits from renewable energy sources across an Alpine transect," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 201(P1), pages 1200-1212.
    9. Anand Verdhen & Bhagu Chahar & Om Sharma, 2014. "Snowmelt Modelling Approaches in Watershed Models: Computation and Comparison of Efficiencies under Varying Climatic Conditions," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(11), pages 3439-3453, September.
    10. Yue Zhang & Alun Gu & Hui Lu & Wei Wang, 2017. "Hydropower Generation Vulnerability in the Yangtze River in China under Climate Change Scenarios: Analysis Based on the WEAP Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-15, November.
    11. Jonas Savelsberg & Moritz Schillinger & Ingmar Schlecht & Hannes Weigt, 2018. "The Impact of Climate Change on Swiss Hydropower," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-23, July.
    12. Luisa Liucci & Daniela Valigi & Stefano Casadei, 2014. "A New Application of Flow Duration Curve (FDC) in Designing Run-of-River Power Plants," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(3), pages 881-895, February.
    13. Handriyanti Diah Puspitarini & Baptiste François & Marco Baratieri & Casey Brown & Mattia Zaramella & Marco Borga, 2020. "Complementarity between Combined Heat and Power Systems, Solar PV and Hydropower at a District Level: Sensitivity to Climate Characteristics along an Alpine Transect," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-19, August.
    14. Sakki, G.K. & Tsoukalas, I. & Kossieris, P. & Makropoulos, C. & Efstratiadis, A., 2022. "Stochastic simulation-optimization framework for the design and assessment of renewable energy systems under uncertainty," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    15. Patro, Epari Ritesh & De Michele, Carlo & Avanzi, Francesco, 2018. "Future perspectives of run-of-the-river hydropower and the impact of glaciers’ shrinkage: The case of Italian Alps," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 699-713.
    16. Sample, James E. & Duncan, Niall & Ferguson, Michael & Cooksley, Susan, 2015. "Scotland׳s hydropower: Current capacity, future potential and the possible impacts of climate change," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 111-122.
    17. Baptiste François & Benoit Hingray & Marco Borga & Davide Zoccatelli & Casey Brown & Jean-Dominique Creutin, 2018. "Impact of Climate Change on Combined Solar and Run-of-River Power in Northern Italy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-22, January.
    18. Schaefli, Bettina & Manso, Pedro & Fischer, Mauro & Huss, Matthias & Farinotti, Daniel, 2017. "The role of glacier retreat for Swiss hydropower production," Earth Arxiv 7z96d, Center for Open Science.
    19. François, B. & Hingray, B. & Raynaud, D. & Borga, M. & Creutin, J.D., 2016. "Increasing climate-related-energy penetration by integrating run-of-the river hydropower to wind/solar mix," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(P1), pages 686-696.
    20. Lucas, Edimilson Costa & Mendes-Da-Silva, Wesley, 2018. "Impact of climate on firm value: Evidence from the electric power industry in Brazil," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 359-368.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pengfei Lin & Jinjun You & Hong Gan & Ling Jia, 2020. "Rule-Based Object-Oriented Water Resource System Simulation Model for Water Allocation," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 34(10), pages 3183-3197, August.
    2. Maryam Ghashghaie & Safar Marofi & Hossein Marofi, 2014. "Using System Dynamics Method to Determine the Effect of Water Demand Priorities on Downstream Flow," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(14), pages 5055-5072, November.
    3. Maritza Arganis-Juárez & Rosalva Mendoza-Ramírez & Ramón Domínguez-Mora & Alma Hernández-Ruiz & Moisés Berezowsky-Verduzco, 2013. "Influence of Guiding Curves in the Optimal Management of a Hydropower System," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(15), pages 4989-5001, December.
    4. Sample, James E. & Duncan, Niall & Ferguson, Michael & Cooksley, Susan, 2015. "Scotland׳s hydropower: Current capacity, future potential and the possible impacts of climate change," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 111-122.
    5. Pérez-Díaz, Juan I. & Wilhelmi, José R., 2010. "Assessment of the economic impact of environmental constraints on short-term hydropower plant operation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 7960-7970, December.
    6. Guisández, Ignacio & Pérez-Díaz, Juan I. & Wilhelmi, José R., 2013. "Assessment of the economic impact of environmental constraints on annual hydropower plant operation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1332-1343.
    7. Ioannis Niadas & Panos Mentzelopoulos, 2008. "Probabilistic Flow Duration Curves for Small Hydro Plant Design and Performance Evaluation," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 22(4), pages 509-523, April.
    8. Geth, F. & Brijs, T. & Kathan, J. & Driesen, J. & Belmans, R., 2015. "An overview of large-scale stationary electricity storage plants in Europe: Current status and new developments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1212-1227.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:26:y:2012:i:5:p:1231-1252. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.