The role of glacier retreat for Swiss hydropower production

RENEWABLE ENERGY

卷:132

Article

Schaefli, Bettina¹  Manso, Pedro²  Fischer, Mauro^3,4  Huss, Matthias^3,5  Farinotti, Daniel^5,6 

[1] Univ Lausanne, Inst Earth Surface Dynam, Lausanne, Switzerland

[2] Ecole Polytech Fed Lausanne, Sch Architecture Civil & Environm Engn ENAC, Lab Hydraul Construct, Lausanne, Switzerland

[3] Univ Fribourg, Dept Geosci, Fribourg, Switzerland

[4] Univ Zurich, Dept Geog, Zurich, Switzerland

[5] Swiss Fed Inst Technol, Lab Hydraul Hydrol & Glaciol, Zurich, Switzerland

[6] Swiss Fed Inst Forest Snow & Landscape Res WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

关键词: Hydrology;    Glacier mass balance;    Hydropower;    Climate change;    Alps;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.renene.2018.07.104

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

High elevation or high latitude hydropower production (HP) strongly relies on water resources that are influenced by glacier melt and are thus highly sensitive to climate warming. Despite of the wide-spread glacier retreat since the development of HP infrastructure in the 20th century, little quantitative information is available about the role of glacier mass loss for HP. In this paper, we provide the first regional quantification for the share of Alpine hydropower production that directly relies on the waters released by glacier mass loss, i.e. on the depletion of long-term ice storage that cannot be replenished by precipitation in the coming decades. Based on the case of Switzerland (which produces over 50% of its electricity from hydropower), we show that since 1980, 3.0%-4.0% (1.0-1.4 TWh yr(-1)) of the country scale hydropower production was directly provided by the net glacier mass loss and that this share is likely to reduce substantially by 2040-2060. For the period 2070-2090, a production reduction of about 1.0 TWh yr(-1) is anticipated. The highlighted strong regional differences, both in terms of HP share from glacier mass loss and in terms of timing of production decline, emphasize the need for similar analyses in other Alpine or high latitude regions. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

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