Assessment of hydropower for climate change mitigation and sustainable development using multicriteria analysis

Abstract

Hydropower is an important renewable energy source that contributes towards maximum electricity generation among all the renewables. Apart from being clean, efficient, and low generation cost technology, hydropower serves and benefits the community in multiple ways. The study aimed to assessed hydropower technology for climate change mitigation and sustainable development in comparison with the wind, solar PV, geothermal, and biopower using Simple Additive Weighting (SAW), a multicriteria decision making (MCDM) method. The indicators used for assessment of renewable energy technologies were installed capacity, efficiency, levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), SO2, and NO2 emission during the full life cycle, land requirement, and jobs/ year. Out of the eight indicators used, four indicators are environmental indicators that contribute to climate change. All the indicators have been assigned equal weights. The assessment ranked hydropower as the most sustainable electricity generation technology, which helps in climate change mitigation by offsetting the emissions and pollutants caused by other energy sources.

Subject Classification:

• 91B32

Keywords:

• Climate change mitigation
• Greenhouse gases
• Hydropower
• Renewable energy
• Sustainable development