Renewables News

Hydropower contributes to global warming: study

Dec 8, 2006, 12:52 GMT

Taipei - Hydropower has always been considered the cleanest forms of power generation, but a study published in Taiwan on Friday showed that hydropower contributes to global warming.

According to the study conducted across Southeast Asia by the National Sun Yat-sen University and the National Central University, hydropower causes much more global warming than coal- or oil-fired power stations.

'Hydropower has always been considered the cleanest form of power generation. But as dams prevent organic matters from flowing down stream, organic matters trapped at the bottom of reservoirs are deprived of the oxygen they need to decompose, thus producing methane and nitrous oxide,' Professor Chen Chen-tong of the National Sun Yat-Sen University said.

Chen said methane and nitrous oxide have different effects on global warming.

'One ton of methane equals 21 tons of carbon dioxide and one ton of nitrous oxide equals 200 tons of carbon dioxide,' he said.

Chen warned that China's Three Gorges Dam will produce serious global-warming effects because the dam has blocked 75 per cent of the organic matters from flowing downstream.

The Three Gorges Dam built in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, began operation on May 20. The dam, the world's largest, is 185 metres high, 2,309 metres long and eight metres wide at the top, and can produce 18.2 kilowatts of electricity each year.

Chen and his team spent three years studying rivers, lakes and reservoirs across Southeast Asia, to evaluate the impact of reservoirs on global warming.