Comparative cost per kilowatt of the latest hydropower projects in Ecuador
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18779/ingenio.v5i1.473Keywords:
Ecuador, cost, hydroelectric, energy, renewable, kilowattAbstract
Hydropower is the largest renewable source globally used, and in Ecuador, by 2020, the energy grid was 77% hydroelectric, but the costs with which these projects are developed generate questioning between the cost and benefit of said investments due to the social, environmental and cultural impacts created. Through a quantitative methodology based on inclusion and exclusion terms that developed comparisons, it was found that the last five hydropower projects in Ecuador inaugurated in the period 2015 - 2019 contain higher costs than the global average in comparison by the calculation by the International Renewable Energy Agency, specifically, for Coca Codo Sinclair, there is a 79% increase, 34% for Sopladora, 21% for Minas San Francisco, 12% for Delsintagua and 119% for the Manduriacu plant. In addition, the global average cost calculated by IRENA in 2020 was 1,472 USD/kW in the average case of 499 MW in Ecuador, there is a cost of 2,018 USD/kW, an additional 37% value for comparison. Investment decisions in new hydropower projects should be improved based on data from existing plants, seeking to mitigate the impacts, doing critical analysis, and defining the country goals with the involved communities.
Downloads
References
C. Llamosas and B. K. Sovacool, “The future of hydropower? A systematic review of the drivers, benefits and governance dynamics of transboundary dams,” Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev., vol. 137, no. 0321, pp. 110–124, 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2020.110495.
ICOLD, “General Synthesis of World register of dams,” 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.icold-cigb.org/article/GB/world_register/general_synthesis/general-synthesis. [Accessed: 19-May-2021].
International Hydropower Association, “Hydropower Status Report 2021: Sector trends and insights,” 2021.
J. L. Chiang, H. C. Yang, Y. R. Chen, and M. H. Lee, “Potential impact of climate change on hydropower generation in southern Taiwan,” Energy Procedia, vol. 40, pp. 34–37, 2013, doi: 10.1016/j.egypro.2013.08.005.
S. Naranjo Silva, D. J. Punina Guerrero, and J. J. Morales Martinez, “Energía solar en paradas de bus una aplicación moderna y vanguardista,” Rev. InGenio, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 58–68, 2021, doi: 10.18779/ingenio.v4i1.368.
K. Daniel and M. Gaviria, “Impactos sociales y el tamaño óptimo de los megaproyectos hidroeléctricos,” Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2018.
T. Teräväinen, “Negotiating water and technology-Competing expectations and confronting knowledges in the case of the Coca Codo Sinclair in Ecuador,” Water (Switzerland), vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 1–18, 2019, doi: 10.3390/w11030411.
Y. Yang, T. Sammut-Bonnici, and J. McGee, “LAD Case Study of Funding Coca Codo Sinclair: Correa’s Bet on Sustainable Power in Ecuador,” Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, no. November, pp. 68–69, 2002.
D. A. Alvarez-Chiriboga, “Prediction model of the energy production of the Coca Codo Sinclair Hydroelectric Plant, based on computational learning techniques,” Army Forces University of Ecuador, 2020.
R. Spalding-Fecher et al., “The vulnerability of hydropower production in the Zambezi River Basin to the impacts of climate change and irrigation development,” Mitig. Adapt. Strateg. Glob. Chang., vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 721–742, 2016, doi: 10.1007/s11027-014-9619-7.
S. W. D. Turner, Y. N. Jia, and S. Galelli, “Examining global electricity supply vulnerability to climate change using a high-fidelity hydropower dam model,” Sci. Total Environ., vol. 590–591, pp. 663–675, 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.022.
S. Naranjo-Silva and J. Álvarez del Castillo, “Hydropower: Projections in a changing climate and impacts by this ‘clean’ source,” CienciAmérica, vol. 10, no. 2, p. 32, Jul. 2021, doi: 10.33210/ca.v10i2.363.
A. Briones Hidrovo, J. Uche, and A. Martínez-Gracia, “Determining the net environmental performance of hydropower: A new methodological approach by combining life cycle and ecosystem services assessment,” Sci. Total Environ., vol. 712, p. 44, 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136369.
B. Tarroja, A. AghaKouchak, and S. Samuelsen, “Quantifying climate change impacts on hydropower generation and implications on electric grid greenhouse gas emissions and operation,” Energy, vol. 111, pp. 295–305, 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2016.05.131.
Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy of Ecuador, “The Gained Decade of the Electricity Sector in Ecuador,” Quito, 2017.
International Renewable Energy Agency, “Renewable Energy Capacity Highlights 2019,” Irena, vol. 00, no. March 2020, pp. 1–3, 2020.
IRENA, “Renewable Energy Statistics 2020. Renewable hydropower (including mixed plants),” 2020.
International Hydropower Association, “Hydropower Status Report 2019: Sector trends and insights,” 2019.
C. Zarfl, A. E. Lumsdon, J. Berlekamp, L. Tydecks, and K. Tockner, “A global boom in hydropower dam construction,” Aquat. Sci., vol. 77, no. 1, pp. 161–170, 2015, doi: 10.1007/s00027-014-0377-0.
The International Journal on Hydropower, “World atlas and industry guide 2015,” Wallington, 2015.
L. Berga, “The Role of Hydropower in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: A Review,” Engineering, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 313–318, 2016, doi: 10.1016/J.ENG.2016.03.004.
K. Liden, R.; Lyon, “The Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol for Use by World Bank Clients - Lessons Learned and Recommendations,” Washington DC, 2014.
International Hydropower Association, Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol, vol. 56, no. 3. Sutton, London, 2018.
MERNNR, “National Energy Efficiency Plan,” 2018, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.celec.gob.ec/hidroagoyan/images/PLANEE_INGLES/NationalEnergyEfficiencyPlan20162035_2017-09-01_16-00-26.html.
IHA, “Hydropower Status Report 2020,” International Hydropower Association, pp. 1–83, 2020.
CELEC, “CELEC EP genera y transmite más del 90 por ciento de la energía eléctrica limpia que consume el país y exporta a los países vecinos,” 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.celec.gob.ec/hidroagoyan/index.php/sala-de-prensa/noticias/722-celec-ep-genera-y-transmite-mas-del-90-por-ciento-de-la-energia-electrica-limpia-que-consume-el-pais-y-exporta-a-los-paises-vecinos#:~:text=En este sentido%2C de la,a través de cen. [Accessed: 22-May-2021].
Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Resources, “Master Plan of Electricity 2019-2027,” 2019.
P. E. Carvajal, F. G. N. Li, R. Soria, J. Cronin, G. Anandarajah, and Y. Mulugetta, “Large hydropower, decarbonisation and climate change uncertainty: Modelling power sector pathways for Ecuador,” Energy Strateg. Rev., vol. 23, no. January, pp. 86–99, 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.esr.2018.12.008.
IRENA, Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2020. 2021.
A. Briones Hidrovo, J. Uche, and A. Martínez-Gracia, “Accounting for GHG net reservoir emissions of hydropower in Ecuador,” Renew. Energy, vol. 112, pp. 209–221, 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2017.05.047.
A. Alarcon, “The hydroelectric plants in Latin America, where are we? and where are we going?,” 2019.
M. Van Vliet, L. Van Beek, S. Eisner, M. Flörke, Y. Wada, and M. F. P. Bierkens, “Multi-model assessment of global hydropower and cooling water discharge potential under climate change,” Glob. Environ. Chang., vol. 40, pp. 156–170, 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.07.007.
M. Mattmann, I. Logar, and R. Brouwer, “Hydropower externalities: A meta-analysis,” Energy Econ., vol. 57, pp. 66–77, 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.eneco.2016.04.016.
G. Voegeli, W. Hediger, and F. Romerio, “Sustainability assessment of hydropower: Using a causal diagram to seize the importance of impact pathways,” Environ. Impact Assess. Rev., vol. 77, no. October 2018, pp. 69–84, 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.eiar.2019.03.005.
A. R. Ghumman, H. Haider, I. Yousuf, and M. Shafiquzamman, “Sustainable Development of Small-Sized Hydropower Plants: Multilevel Decision-Making from Site Selection to Optimal Design,” Arab. J. Sci. Eng., vol. 45, no. 5, pp. 4141–4159, 2020, doi: 10.1007/s13369-020-04407-8.
S. Naranjo-Silva and J. Álvarez del Castillo, “An Approach of the Hydropower: Advantages and Impacts. A Review,” J. Energy Res. Rev., vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 10–20, Jun. 2021, doi: 10.9734/jenrr/2021/v8i130201.
B. Van Der Zwaan et al., “Energy technology roll-out for climate change mitigation: A multi-model study for Latin America,” Energy Econ., vol. 56, pp. 526–542, 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.eneco.2015.11.019.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Sebastián Naranjo-Silva, Diego Javier Punina Guerrero, Javier Álvarez del Castillo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Licensing Agreement
This journal provides free access to its content through its website following the principle that making research available free of charge to the public supports a larger exchange of global knowledge.
Web content of the journal is distributed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
Authors may adopt other non-exclusive license agreements for the distribution of the version of the published work, provided that the initial publication in this journal is indicated. Authors are allowed and recommended to disseminate their work through the internet before and during the submission process, which can produce interesting exchanges and increase citations of the published work.
