A COST EFFECTIVE AND ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE APPROACH TO RETROFITTING EXISTING DAMS FOR HYDROELECTRIC POWER GENERATION

摘要

Hydraulic potential stored in water reservoirs can be converted to useful power through the work of turbomachinery. However, nations around the world have large numbers of existing dams with hydropower potential left unused. These dams were mostly built during the latter half of the 20th century. At that time, thermal electric energy supply, generated with abundant cheap fossil fuels made small scale hydropower generation less attractive Another reason for such low utilization of these clean renewable energy resources is the significant capital cost of equipment and hydropower plant construction. This made small hydropower development economically noncompetitive. With the rapid depletion of fossil fuel and the increased environmental and global warming concerns, it becomes highly desirable to harness clean renewable energy sources.