hydroMinds - Small Hydropower Potential Assessment
Identification of new renewable energy resources is of crucial importance to reduce fossil fuel dependency and to address the cause of climate change. In many countries, and particularly developing countries, insufficient information on stream networks and topography as well as a lack of expertise and project funding are often burdens for the implementation of new hydropower projects. In order to take decisive steps forward in the implementation of new hydropower developments around the world, a holistic concept should be used to advise governments and policy-makers, investors and utility companies as well as the general public. Innovative geoinformatic approaches such as the analysis of terrestrial and remote sensing data allow identifying sustainable, longterm reliable and economically viable green energy opportunities even in countries with few terrestrial historic data records.
hydroMinds is a computer-based analysis and decision-support system for siting economically viable hydropower opportunities of any scale. The system is a compilation of sub-tools to model the physical, hydrological and technical conditions of a study area to accurately assess the hydropower potential of entire stream networks. The holistic, systematic and automated approach derives physical parameters, watersheds and hydrologic structures from remote sensing and terrestrial support data. The availability of high quality remote sensing data and the option to substitute sub-tools with regionally verified models allows for the accurate assessment of even large remote areas with low ground data availability.The relative and absolute ranking of technically and economically viable projects as well as the web-accessible analysis tool will provide stakeholders with increased transparency to make more informed decisions. Time-consuming and cost-intensive further studies could be concentrated at identified sites, allowing for more detailed on-site studies while still remaining within the budget even for smaller projects.
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