Evaluating Hydropower for Global Electricity Demand using GIS - Essay Example

? Research Proposal: Evaluating Hydropower for Global Electri Demand using GIS Introduction In today's world, electricity is the most widely used source of power, providing energy to both millions of households and industries. Since the beginning, electricity has seen a constant yet significant increase in its demands resulting in government and agencies using various sources to produce electricity. Among these, fossil fuels are two of the most widely used sources. While coal and fossil fuel offer the cheapest way of producing electricity due to their abundance and presence of related infrastructure around the world, however, their use is not without disadvantages. Burning any fossil fuel produces Carbon dioxide which contributes to the "Greenhouse effect”, thus increasing the temperature of the earth. Coal is even more dangerous, the burning of coal produces more Carbon dioxide then oil or gas along with Sulphur dioxide. Coal also needs to be burned in huge amount on constant basis thus making it the most polluting commercial power generating source in the world (Saddleback Educational Publishing, 2008). However, in the recent years, it has been realized by scientists that the use huge amount of coal and other fossil fuels to produce cheap electricity has taken its toll on earth in the form of global warming, hence a number of more efficient and less polluting options have been considered and put into use by government around the world. There has also been a growing trend of exploring and using renewable energy options which produce zero pollution and are inexhaustible in contrast to coal and fossil fuel. One of the widely used renewable energy option is Hydro power. The purpose of this project is to establish whether hydro power can serve as a single source of energy for all the current and future needs of the world (Saddleback Educational Publishing, 2008). Statement of the Problem While their has been a lot of work done by researchers around the world in developing new techniques for using alternative sources for energy production, selecting optimum sites for installing new alternative energy plants as well as planning of energy production and enhancement on regional basis, however, only a small amount data and resources on measuring potential and development of these resources on global scale is available. One of the major problems that the world is facing right now is the shortage of energy, particularly electrical energy. With the high predicted population growth rate, it is expected that the demand of electricity will far outweighs any other type of energy demand. The problem that this research will attempt to solve is to determine if one of the alternative sources of power, namely hydropower, is in such abundance that it can be used to meet the future electricity demands of the world. The purpose of the Study The purpose this project is to determine the ways in which hydropower can be used to generate electricity on a massive scale. A secondary objective of this research is to demonstrate how GIS can be used to establish the potential of hydropower for electricity generation for global demands. This project will use high altitude imagery, maps and other data available through NASA and other resources for its analysis with both qualitative and quantitative research method will be used to carry out the evaluation in an effort to determine the suitability of hydropower. Literature Review According to the figures provided in World Energy Outlook released by International Energy Agency (IEA) in 2009, global electricity demand is growing at double the rate of overall energy use and it is expected that it will see a growth of 76% by 2030 (International Energy Agency, 2008). While conventional methods of electricity production such as fossil fuels provide an economical and readily available way of electricity generation, the tremendous amount of negative impact that they have on the environment (green house effect and global warming) as well as their finite quantity makes them unsuitable to be considered as a viable solution for future electricity demands. Hence scientists and researcher are now focusing more on considering renewable energy for this purpose (Kesper, 2009). Renewable Energy Renewable energy can be defined as energy that is inherent in natural resources such as sunlight, wind, geothermal heat as well as water. As a result of intensive action taken by governments around the world, a significant portion of energy that is consumed globally today comes from renewable energy. In 2008, around 19% of total world energy as well as 18% of electricity generated was produced through renewable energy (International Energy Agency, 2008). Among these renewable energy options, Hydropower is one of the most used and viable option for producing electricity. Hydropower The concept of hydropower utilizes the fact that moving water contains in rivers, canals and other water channel contains significant amount of energy that can be used to produce electricity on mass level. The use of water as a source of energy by humans goes back to thousands of years. In the imperial Rome, water mills were used to grind grains while a similar concept was used by China's Han dynasty. In medieval days, hydropower was utilized for extraction of metals from ores. In modern times, hydropower is one of the major sources of electricity production around the world. Electricity through hydropower or hydroelectricity is usually produced by building dam reservoirs on rivers and other water channels to store water. The stored water is then released through a narrow penstock where it causes a turbine to spin thus producing electricity. One of the major disadvantages of using hydropower for electricity is that the construction of a dam depends upon the availability of a river or other moving water source as well as the competing uses of that source such as recreation, industry as well as for populating areas. Though dams do not produce pollution, they can have environmental impacts due to their water storage capability such as flooding of the upstream areas and change in flow patterns and flooding of downstream areas (Gibson, 2004). Research Hypothesis The research hypothesis used will be "Hydropower can successfully meet global demands of electricity" Research Questions The questions that will be answered by this research are - What methods are currently used to generate electricity using hydropower? -How hydropower can be used to generate electricity in an inexpensive and efficient way? -What factors determine the suitability of a area for hydroelectric generation? -How hydropower can be used to produce electricity to meet global demands?. -What problems are faced in determination of suitability of an alternative resource for electricity generation? Proposed Research Methodology Selected Research Design The result of this research will be built upon gaining a deep understanding of the current hydro resources of the world and how they can be best utilized for fulfilling the global electricity demands of the future. Hence, the research methodology used for this research will be interpretative. The research will also use both qualitative and quantitative method for its investigation (Saunders, 2007). Primary Research The primary research for this research will be conducted through GIS analysis. For this purpose, GIS maps and data available from online free repositories will be used. In order to explore the potential of areas with different geography, a number of maps from different parts of the world will be used. In order to ensure a thorough analysis multiple well known GIS applications will be used. These include ArcGIS as well as ERDAS. The purpose of this analysis will be to take the topographical data into account and estimate the hydropower potential of each of the map with different geography which will then be used to estimate the global potential for hydroelectric power. Further data will be added to analysis from a variety of GIS resource on the basis of requirement. Secondary Research The secondary research will be done using earlier research in the form of articles and books, available through the internet and the library. Books that would be referred for this research include GIS and remote sensing in hydrology, water resources and environment, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and mapping: Practices and standards as well as Applied GIS and spatial analysis. Articles from Journal of Hydroinformatics, Applied Energy Magazine as well as academic researches available through research databases such as Emerald and Elsevier and information available through alternative energy research and development companies' websites will also be used as secondary research. Limitations The scope of this research will be limited to studying hydroelectric power only. This has been done in order to keep the research focused and to make it comprehensive by keeping within the limits of available resources such as time and budget. This research will also be limited in its comprehensiveness due to the significantly limited time allocated for this research; however, this research would serve as a good first step for research toward a more advanced goal. Another constraint for this research is money. Due to lack of funds only a limited number of maps and scenarios, thus type of geographies, can be analysis thus limiting the usefulness of this research. But, it is expected that this research will provide a very strong foundation for researchers in their efforts to determine a greener way of electricity production for the world of the future. Significance of the Research Personal Significance This research is particularly important to me because as a student of GIS, I believe that in the past, due to our reckless decisions, earth's environment has been hurt a lot and now is the time that we decide to switch over to the use of greener resources. The use of renewable energy is although expensive now, but, when compared to the price that our generation could pay in the future for our continuous use of fossil fuel and coal, it is nothing. However, it is important to determine what resources we have at our hand in order to use them more effectively. I am also interested in this suitability study because I believe it is often not given due importance on global scale by researchers. Significance to the Research Industry The research conducted for this process will contribute toward the literature on the topic of suitability study for alternative resources for fulfilling global energy demand from a practical point of view. It would also contribute toward highlighting the problems that are faced when it comes to evaluating resources on global scale. This research will also contribute toward providing a strong foundation to researcher in determination of greener solution for economical electricity production on mass scale. Contribution to the Society As the world has technological progressed, more and more devices and equipment that use electricity for their operations are manufactured. The consumption of electricity is also greatly influenced by the increase in population of the world. If no proper planning for energy resources is done today than the world may suffer from major shortages of energy that may badly affect people's lives. This research provides a first step in planning of alternative energy resource by determination of their potential on global level. List of References Gibson, D. 2004. Hydroelectricity. Black Rabbit Books. International Energy Agency. 2008. World Energy Outlook 2009. International Energy Agency [online] available from . Access Date 12 March 2011. Kesper, J.K. 2009. Fossil Fuels and Pollution:The Future of Air Quality. Infobase Publishing. Saddleback Educational Publishing. 2008. Global Warming: Think Green. Saddleback Educational Publishing. Saunders et al M. 2007. 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