Harnessing hydropower or hydro power in Africa and Europe with Environmental Observations of Hydropower Plants

Harnessing hydropower or hydro power in Africa and Europe with Environmental Observations of Hydropower Plants



http://www.archimedeshydroscrew.com/harnessing-hydropower-or-hydro-power-in-africa-and-europe/

http://www.archimedeshydroscrew.com/harnessing-hydropower-or-hydro-power-in-africa-and-europe/

http://www.archimedeshydroscrew.com

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Harnessing hydropower or hydro power in Africa and Europe Environmental Observations of Hydropower Plants   Institute of Water member Claire Chapman, an Edinburgh-based environmental engineer, has recently returned from a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship (www.wcmt.org.uk) visiting a series of hydropower plants in Africa and Europe. Her aim was to investigate the operation and maintenance of hydro sites, to review environmental licensing requirements, to compare and contrast the effectiveness of hydro schemes, to discuss the carbon saving and environmental pros and cons of these plants and, finally, to see examples on the ground of all types of hydro projects.   Claire spent 10 days in Norway followed by a month in Africa, visiting South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia and Tanzania. She met local operators and researched environmental sensitivities and how they have been dealt with. A report detailing her findings, both for the operating companies overseas and for the UK, in terms of implementing environmental good practices, has been produced and can be found onwww.wcmt.org.uk   With hydro power having gained increasing attention in the past year, due to the introduction of the Feed In Tariff in Britain, Claire wanted to see what was happening in this field in other parts of the world. In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, where there is currently a critical availability of power, she found that hydro power plants were running with no allowances being made for in river environmental requirements. This has been exacerbated by drought conditions in some parts, as well as artificial droughts arising from water-intensive crops being planted upstream of hydropower plants.   Norway has found a solution to storing power in its reservoirs, which can be released at a moment’s notice, and are now capitalising on this by selling energy storage to the EU. Similarly, in South Africa, more pumped storage sites are being constructed to allow for quick access to power. Pumped storage may provide a solution to Scotland having to dump excess wind energy, and seeing examples of pumped storage sites first-hand in other countries has given Claire an insight as to how these could work in Scotland. Harnessing hydropower or hydro power in Africa and Europe with Environmental Observations of Hydropower Plants http://www.archimedeshydroscrew.com/harnessing-hydropower-or-hydro-power-in-africa-and-europe/ http://www.archimedeshydroscrew.com/harnessing-hydropower-or-hydro-power-in-africa-and-europe/ http://www.archimedeshydroscrew.com Read more at dabasiah.posterous.com

 

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