relation: https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/14245/
title: Impacts of recent drought and warm years on water resources and electricity supply worldwide
creator: van Vliet, M.
creator: Sheffield, J.
creator: Wiberg, D.
creator: Wood, E.F.
description: Recent droughts and heatwaves showed the vulnerability of the electricity sector to surface water constraints with reduced potentials for thermoelectric power and hydropower generation in different regions. Here we use a global hydrological-electricity modelling framework to quantify the impacts of recent drought and warm years on hydropower and thermoelectric power usable capacity worldwide. Our coupled modelling framework consists of a hydrological model, stream temperature model, hydropower and thermoelectric power models, and was applied with data of a large selection of hydropower and thermoelectric power plants worldwide. Our results show that hydropower utilisation rates were on average reduced by 5.2% and thermoelectric power by 3.8% during the drought years compared to the long-term average for 1981-2010. Statistically significant (p < 0.01) impacts on both hydropower and thermoelectric power usable capacity were found during major drought years, e.g. 2003 in Europe (-6.6% in hydropower and -4.7% in thermoelectric power) and 2007 in Eastern North America (-6.1% in hydropower and -9.0% in thermoelectric power). Our hydrological-electricity modelling framework has potential for studying the linkages between water and electricity supply under climate variability and change, contributing to the quantification of the 'water-energy nexus'.
publisher: Institute of Physics Publishing (IOP)
date: 2016-12-12
type: Article
type: PeerReviewed
format: text
language: en
rights: cc_by
identifier: https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/14245/1/van_Vliet_2016_Environ._Res._Lett._11_124021.pdf
identifier:   van Vliet, M. <https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/view/iiasa/350.html>, Sheffield, J., Wiberg, D. <https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/view/iiasa/329.html>, & Wood, E.F.  (2016).  Impacts of recent drought and warm years on water resources and electricity supply worldwide.   Environmental Research Letters 11 (12) e124021. 10.1088/1748-9326/11/12/124021 <https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326%2F11%2F12%2F124021>.       
relation: doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/12/124021
identifier: doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/12/124021