Climate Smart Small-Scale Hydro Power Plants

Climate Smart Small-Scale Hydro Power Plants provides empirical guidance to practitioners seeking to optimize the design and adapt the operation of small hydro power plants (SHPPs) to reflect the growing threats posed by climate change. The work opens by reviewing the current position, practice and impacts of SHPP as part of a diversifying sustainable energy mix threatened by the uncertain vagaries of climate change – including violent flooding, inconsistent rain fall, poor catchment management, and water flow rises. The book collectively presents an argument for ‘climate smart’ SHPP planning and design which integrates qualitative and quantitative climate-change context-sensitive aspects into the design of SHPP systems, anchored in technical rigor, specialized simulation modelling, financial prudence, and environmental impact assessments. Chapters review practical examples of hydro-ecological regimes where small hydro power plants play a vital component in the overall energy mix, focusing on social, ecological and economic dimensions of safeguarding, key policies and operational practices. These case studies are used to assess progress and future steps in achieving SHPP climate smart systems, blending comparative review, integration and analysis. The work concludes by elaborating policy lessons, outlining pathways to mitigate risk for future systems. Explains how to adapt small hydro power systems to mitigate climate change using climate smart approachesGuides policymakers to discount climate change impacts when formulating environmental policies for SHPP systemsBlends ecological, economic and social considerations in developing hydroecological solutions