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Offsetting the greenhouse gas footprint of hydropower with floating solar photovoltaics

Nature Sustainability volume 7, pages 1102–1106 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Hydropower is typically considered a low-carbon energy source. Yet, because of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from their reservoirs, some hydropower facilities exhibit high GHG intensities (that is, emissions per unit of electricity generated). Here we assess the potential for offsetting GHG intensities by combining reservoir-based hydropower with floating solar photovoltaics (FPV), a burgeoning renewable energy technology. We find that technically feasible FPV–hydropower integrations could enable over 50% of the world’s GHG-intensive hydropower plants to achieve low-GHG energy benchmarks. These findings have implications for both project-level hydropower management and broader climate change mitigation strategies.

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Fig. 1: Impact of FPV integrations on the GHG footprint of global hydropower.
Fig. 2: GHG offsetting potential of FPV integrations into GHG-intensive hydropower systems.

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Data availability

The GHG intensity data were taken from Li and He2. Global photovoltaic power potential data are from the Global Solar Atlas (https://globalsolaratlas.info/download)20, a free, web-based application developed and operated by the company Solargis s.r.o. on behalf of the World Bank Group, utilizing Solargis data, with funding provided by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program. All data supporting the findings of this study are available at https://github.com/rafamalmeida/ghg-hp-fpv.

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Acknowledgements

R.M.A. acknowledges funding from a University of Texas System Rising STARs award and a USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture seed grant (no. 2023-67020-39704).

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Author notes

  1. Rafael M. Almeida

    Present address: O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX, USA

    Rafael M. Almeida & Areefin-Ul-Hassan Chowdhury

  2. School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX, USA

    Areefin-Ul-Hassan Chowdhury & Hansapani Rodrigo

  3. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Mingxu Li

  4. Natural Capital Project, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Rafael J. P. Schmitt

  5. Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Rafael J. P. Schmitt

  6. Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Rafael J. P. Schmitt

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  1. Rafael M. Almeida
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  2. Areefin-Ul-Hassan Chowdhury
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  3. Hansapani Rodrigo
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  4. Mingxu Li
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  5. Rafael J. P. Schmitt
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Contributions

R.M.A. and R.J.P.S. designed the study. M.L. supplied the GHG datasets. R.M.A., A.-U.-H.C. and H.R. compiled additional data and conducted the analyses. R.M.A. and R.J.P.S. interpreted the data. R.M.A. wrote the initial draft, with additional input from R.J.P.S.

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Correspondence to Rafael M. Almeida.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Sustainability thanks Bridget Deemer, Brandi McKuin, Giuseppe Marco Tina and Gregory Thomas for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Text 1 and Figs. 1 and 2.

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Almeida, R.M., Chowdhury, AUH., Rodrigo, H. et al. Offsetting the greenhouse gas footprint of hydropower with floating solar photovoltaics. Nat Sustain 7, 1102–1106 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01384-w

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