Assessing the water and carbon footprint of hydropower stations at a national scale

Jinyan Wang; Xiuzhi Chen; Zhongwei Liu; Veronica F Frans; Zhenci Xu; Xinjiao Qiu; Feipeng Xu; Yunkai Li

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.148

Assessing the water and carbon footprint of hydropower stations at a national scale

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Aug 1:676:595-612. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.148. Epub 2019 Apr 22.

Authors

Jinyan Wang¹, Xiuzhi Chen¹, Zhongwei Liu², Veronica F Frans³, Zhenci Xu⁴, Xinjiao Qiu⁵, Feipeng Xu¹, Yunkai Li⁶

Affiliations

¹ College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China.
² Division of Materials, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR), Beijing, China.
³ Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA.
⁴ Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA. Electronic address: xuzhencinl@gmail.com.
⁵ Water Resources Department, Construction Management and Quality Safety Center, Beijing, Haidian 100038, China.
⁶ College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: liyunkai@126.com.

PMID: 31051366
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.148

Abstract

Hydropower is among the most widely-adopted renewable energy sources worldwide. Its development has, however, led to environmental impacts such as carbon emissions and water loss. To date, the water footprint (WF) and carbon footprint (CF) of hydropower stations have been assessed, but not simultaneously or at a large scale such as national scale. Previous WF and CF studies rarely assessed all life-cycle stages of a hydropower station, calling for a more holistic understanding of the environmental impacts of hydropower. We developed a complete WF and CF assessment method and applied it to a case study on 50 of China's most influential hydropower stations, representing over 80% of the country's total hydropower. The total annual WF of these hydropower stations was 5.50 × 10¹¹ m³, equal to 18.9% of Yellow River's annual runoff. The total CF of these stations was 1.06 × 10⁷ tCO₂e, with extremely large variations found, ranging from 1850 to 1.56 × 10⁶ tCO₂e. This study provides the first environmental impact assessment to simultaneously include the WF and CF of multiple influential hydropower stations at a national scale. We were able to show spatial variations in their environmental impacts from different life-cycle stages of the hydropower station. Most of the WF was due to surface water loss from reservoirs, while most of the CF was derived from the operational and maintenance stage of these stations. This initial WF and CF assessment of hydropower at a national scale provides insights for water resource management and carbon reduction during hydropower development.

Keywords: China; Environmental impact assessment; Footprint; Life Cycle Assessment; Reservoir; Water-energy-CO(2) nexus.