A GRID BASED ASSESSMENT OF GLOBAL THEORETICAL HYDROPOWER POTENTIAL

抄録

Hydropower has been accepted as a clean source of energy that relies on proven technology. There are many estimates on global theoretical hydropower potential published in technical literatures, but the results have been found inconsistent. This study presents a 0.5-degree grid based assessment of global theoretical hydropower potential using recent data for global runoff produced by Global Soil Wetness Project, an international land surface modeling project. The gross theoretical hydropower potential for many countries was found larger than the previous estimates. This difference has mainly attributed to the need for a clear view on the theoretical hydropower potential, which would serve as a base to find the technical and economical potential to promote hydro electricity mainly in terms of small hydro in developing countries.