Hydropower Development: A foundation of green economy

In western Himalaya, there is considerable potential for hydropower to contribute to the emergence of a green economy, as it offers much-needed low-carbon electricity for development. Apart from its problematic promotion as carbon offsetting projects, hydropower can contribute to the avoidance of green house gases (GHG) emissions and is expected to play an important role in the transition to renewable energy systems:  Hydropower continues to be the most important and economic source of commercial renewable energy worldwide and its popularity is increasing. However there remain significant challenges to ensure that hydropower can deliver sustainable developmental benefits locally, regionally, and globally, and meet the expectations of all stakeholders. If well managed, hydropower provides many solutions for energy and water management in a green economy. With regard to climate change mitigation, hydropower as a clean, renewable energy source contributes directly to global low carbon energy goals, and therefore to climate change mitigation.

Hydropower is an important energy strategy that now reshapes the ecological functions and services of a river system.  Hydropower is a renewable, clean and non-polluting energy resource with high conversion efficiency showing spectacular operational flexibility and operational & economic superiority over other power generation means. To encourage hydropower development as well as looking for a tool for local development in peripheral regions, the Indian Prime Minister launched in 2003 in a landmark move the so called ‘50,000 MW hydro initiative’. Under this scheme preliminary feasibility reports for 162 large and medium sized projects with a capacity of 47.9 GW were prepared. Out of these 162 schemes, 133 are in the IHR. This hydropower push has focused on the Indian Himalayas where the steep drops of tributaries to the Indus and Ganga have the potential to generate larger outputs of power in western Himalaya.

The third World Water Assessment Program of United Nation -WWAP-2009 estimates that the world’s population is growing by some 80 million people per year: this fast pace of demographic growth will lead to an increase in freshwater demand of about 64 billion cubic meters per year. The WWAP estimates that by the year 2050, 22% of the world’s population will be older than 60 years and that by the year 2030, 60% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas. This urbanization is expected for 95% of the cases in countries with developing economies.

Hydropower offers a number of benefits by enabling current and future adaptation to the effects of climate change. A reservoir, as part of hydropower infrastructure, has the advantage of offering multiple services. As well as offering clean, renewable energy, a hydropower reservoir can enhance water security and management, providing flood mitigation, storage for irrigation and other purposes, and the stabilization of downstream flow regimes. Other facilities a hydropower reservoir offers include tourism and recreational facilities, habitats for biodiversity, and increases in income generation options for example through fisheries.

 Hydropower: A step towards carbon sequestration 

The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows industrialized countries to partially meet their Kyoto Protocol commitments by reducing emissions in developing countries and using the resulting emissions reduction credits towards their Kyoto targets. The CDM plays a pivotal role in the international climate change regime helping emitters in industrialized countries lower their costs of compliance and providing funds for renewable energy, energy efficiency and other emissions reducing activities in developing countries. Hydropower projects can have negative and sometimes severe impacts on river ecosystems and communities, including displacement of communities, loss of agricultural land, and decline in biodiversity. The World Commission on Dams (WCD), established in 1998 in response to growing public scrutiny of large dams, developed a comprehensive framework for energy and water planning to ensure that adverse impacts from dam projects are minimized and the benefits and costs are more evenly distributed among stakeholders.

Figure: Green Gas Emission from different energy resources (Source: World Nuclear Association)

India is also expanding its power sector very quickly to meet soaring power demand and chronic power shortfalls. It anticipates quadrupling its electricity supply between 2005 and 2030, a tremendous undertaking. It intends to do so through pursuing all fuel options. India’s Eleventh Five Year Plan called for 16.5 GW of hydropower to be built between 2007 and 2012. The Central Electricity Authority recommends that 30 GW be pursued during the twelfth five year plan between 2012 and 2017.The project activity is a renewable energy power projects utilizing water resources for power generation.  The electricity generated would be substitute the power generation by thermal power plants and would continue towards the reduction in use of finite and non-renewable natural resources like coal etc. The hydropower project activity by generating clean power would be excellent environment benefit in term of reduction of GHG emission and conservation of natural resources of western Himalaya. 

As energy utilization is the major source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and associated global warming, renewable, carbon-neutral electricity is currently of much interest. Yet other than hydroelectricity, renewable energy has not been a significant contributor to most modern economies, and societal impacts of sustainable energy use are not completely understood. Significantly different impacts also accrue from different renewable sources such as solar, wind and biomass.

The Indian government has mapped out its hydropower resources by river basin, ranking the attractiveness of potential hydropower sites. This ranking contributes to the decision of which plants will be built in what order. When hydropower sites are mapped out and ranked for future development, the most influence the CDM might have on planning decisions is to accelerate the pace at which some hydropower facilities are being built, not whether they are built at all, perhaps justifying only a few years of credits for some projects if the acceleration effect is discernible. A large number of big hydropower plants (and a number of smaller ones) are aiming to get carbon credits. From western Himalaya, many projects have been submitted to the UNFCCC or have been approved by India's Designated National Agency. Many of the proposed projects are also planning to get CDM carbon credits.