THE METHOD OF ESTIMATING SMALL HYDROPOWER POTENTIAL USING ELEVATION AND PRECIPITATION OBSERVED BY SATELLITES

Abstract

Interest of use of renewable energy has been growing on. In the development of small hydropower energy, it is necessary to know which areas are suitable for. This can be done by using a basic observation data such as elevations and observed flow. However, if the reliability of the observation is low, or lack of basic hydrological observation, in developing countries for example, satellite observation data are applicable.

In this study, the method to estimate the potential enegy of small hydro power by utilizing satellite data was reported. SRTM3 as elevation, and GSMaP as precipitation are used. The effect of the errors of satellite data was checked and a calculation of small hydro energy potential was carried out in order to verify adaptability of the method.