Kai Whiting, Lara Jin Qiu-ting Esser, Alicia Valero DelgadoCIRCE - Research Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption, Mariano Esquillor, 15, 50018 , Zaragoza, Spain

2International Center on Small Hydro Power (ICSHP), 136 Nanshan Lu, Hangzhou, 310002 China

Hydropower’s Contribution to the Environmental Integrity of the Embryonic Chinese Carbon Market

Kai Whiting1†, Lara Jin Qiu-ting Esser2, Alicia Valero Delgado11CIRCE - Research Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption, Mariano Esquillor, 15, 50018 , Zaragoza, Spain

2International Center on Small Hydro Power (ICSHP), 136 Nanshan Lu, Hangzhou, 310002 China

This paper discusses how hydropower can contribute to the environmental integrity of the Chinese carbon market and support low carbon initiatives and policies in China. It also explores the scientific research that questions the carbon neutrality of hydropower due to the release of notable quantities of greenhouse gases through the creation and operation of a hydroelectric reservoir. The authors provide a comprehensive analysis of how current carbon market mechanisms and management should be maintained, strengthened and/or enhanced in order to optimise the provincial carbon markets of 2014. Based on the literature review and discussion, the authors provide nine principle recommendations. Such recommendations include a verification of the data provided regarding hydropower installations and watersheds through various means such as GIS, aerial photography and the cross-referencing of records; and the use of the Strategic Environmental Assessment in addition to the already prescribed Environmental Impact Assessment and guidelines for small hydropower Should these recommendations be followed it would result in more robust emission trading policies and practices within the hydropower sector which could then be used as a template for other carbon reduction technologies within the Chinese power industry.

© 2014 L&H Scientific Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.

Submission Info

Communicated by Zhifeng Yang

Received 1 January 2014

Accepted 20 February 2014

Available online 1 April 2014

China; Hydropower;

Hydroelectricity;

Carbon offset;

Carbon trading;

Emission trading;

Climate change

1 Introduction

In 2014 the world is evolving towards nationally based carbon emission trading derived from the philosophy behind and the methodology applied under the United Nation’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). In China, specifically, leader Xi Jingping recognises the need to improve the country’s environmental conditions and especially, following the Beijing smog of 2013, urban air quality. Thermally-produced energy is steadily being targeted in embryonic carbon trading schemes, as a means to reduce carbon intensity and alternative energies such as hydropower, are increasingly been sought as a solution for the growing Chinese energy demand and the associated environmental problems.

It is thus imperative that the contribution of greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement and somewhat controversially, the emissions from hydroelectric reservoirs are investigated and quantified to fully comprehend hydropower’s effectiveness as a climate change and emission abatement clean energy technology. It is also important that its role within the embryonic carbon markets is ascertained to ensure that its contribution to the integrity of an Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) is real, measurable and verifiable. This effectively provides the rationale for this paper’s publication especially in light of the uncertainty surrounding global carbon markets, recent research1Bridget Deemer and Maria Glavin of Washington State Universityinto reservoir emissions from drawdown zones2Defined as the area temporarily inundated depending on the reservoir level variation during operationand the criticisms surrounding hydropower expansion rather than the addressing of energy efficiency, energy conservation and improvements in grid interconnection (Yan, 2012).

Lastly, this paper does not consider hydropower’s role in other innovative market mechanisms such as Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) because they address sectoral issues such as those found in transport. The authors did not come across any proposed NAMA associated with hydropower of any size in China.

2 Environmental integrity and the emission marketplace

The polluter pays principle was first elaborated as an economic principle in the 1970s (Coffey and Newcombe, 2001) but came of age with the introduction of the Acid Rain Programme under the revised US Clean Air Act 1990. This pioneering SO2programme initiated a emissions “cap and trade” market which later became the reference point and the global strategy adopted for limiting the emissions of GHGs under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol (Chichilnisky and Heal, 2000; Egenhofer, 2012).

The Kyoto Protocol (1997) is the world’s only treaty that forces countries to cut GHG emissions3Carbon dioxide (CO2); Methane (CH4); Nitrous oxide (N2O); Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs); Perfluorocarbons (PFCs); and Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)(Marcello M & Marcelo Teixeira). It was established as a means to fulfill Article 2 of the 1992 UNFCCC signed at the Rio Earth Summit. The CDM is the flagship carbon trading scheme delivered under Kyoto (Murray, 2012) and is by the far the largest international offsetting mechanism (CDMPDP, 2012).

At the crux of what it really means to be an “offset”, additionality should provide a reasonable degree of real emissions reductions. The reasoning most frequently put forward as to why additionality is needed in the CDM is what can be called the argument for environmental integrity (Muller, 2009). This is because net neutrality is only maintained if projects are demonstrably additional (Ruthner et al., 2011). If not, they are “fake”credits which undermine the integrity of the Kyoto agreement (Michealowa, 2005) and fail to address the reason behind it - anthropogenic global warming and the 39% above pre-industrialised level growth in atmospheric CO2.

The Chinese hydropower sector has a place in the emission marketplace as hydroelectricity is undoubtedly cleaner with a much lower footprint than either brown-coal or oil fired stations. The issue comes when as is frequently claimed, hydropower is said to be carbon neutral. Whilst run-of-the-river SHP installations most certainly are, this fact cannot be blanket claimed for all hydropower sizes. Zhang and Xu (2013) state that the large Zhikong hydropower project in China contributes an emission intensity average 195 CO2-kWh, a figure which suggests that the low carbon status of any large hydro installation may not be as accurate as first believed.

In any case, if one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent is said to be removed from the atmosphere and payment is received for that tonne, one must ensure that all claimed carbon reductions are real, in order to maintain the environmental integrity of that carbon credit.

3 China: development of emission trading schemes

China, as the most populous nation and fastest growing economy, in 2011 and 2006 respectively, surpassed the US as the world’s largest energy consumer and greenhouse gas emitter (BP, 2011; Buckley, 2010). Thecountry is responsible for about one-quarter of global carbon emissions from energy, emitting about 48% more than the US (Rogers and Harvey, 2012). These facts have subsequently led to increasing international pressure regarding the need for the Chinese Government to publish emission data and set targets to address, amongst other issues, energy intensity, energy efficiency, energy conservation and clean electricity generation (Leggett, 2011). Environmental crises such as the urban smog of 2013 and the subsequent respiratory problems have also pushed carbon cutting to the forefront of the political agenda.

The Chinese Government through the National Development and Reform Commission4The NDRC's functions are to study and formulate policies for economic and social development, maintain the balance of economic development and to guide restructuring of China's economic system. It incorporates 26 functional departments/bureaus/offices including the Department of Development Planning, Department of National Economy and the Bureau of Energy(NDRC) has shown via its insightful handling of the CDM that it is an intelligent thinker of market based tools. Innovative policy meant that by 2009 Chinese carbon was worth nearly $1.3 billion (USD). The country’s 4540 projects5Not all were approved by the UN however.also make it the world’s biggest carbon credit supplier, constituting 60% of the global total (Reklev, 2012). A strong domestic solution appears to hold the greatest promise for further carbon optimisation and is a way in which the carbon markets can evolve under the CDM’s ideology (Yu, 2012).

China’s national carbon emissions market is expected to begin as early as 2016. The specific offset mechanism is called the Chinese Certified Emission Reduction (CCER). Mid-2013 saw the first of China’s seven pilot carbon-trading schemes, the Shenzhen Emission Exchange, come online. By December Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong province had also launched, bringing the collective regulation of carbon dioxide to 700 million tonnes per annum, a figure equivalent to the whole emission footprint of South Korea. The other carbon markets (Tianjin, Chongqing and Hubei) are expected to come online in 2014 (Chen, 2014).

To take Shenzhen, Guangdong, as an example, the city announced in September 2012 that it intended to apply an emission cutting policy (via an ETS). When it came online in June 2013 it covered 26 industries, 635 industrial firms and 197 government buildings, which accounted for about 40 per cent of the city's total emissions of 2010 (Li, 2013). Each company involved was given around a 100 million metric tonne CO2emission allowance for the next three years. This means that should these companies only emit this quantity, it will equate to a 32 percent reduction in terms of GDP emission intensity (Song, 2013). Shanghai and Beijing also followed suit by providing freely distributed permits (Chen and Reklev, 2013a). The Guandong province emissions scheme, based on auctioning, was launched in December 2013 and is set to become, following a stabilising period, the second largest scheme in the world, after the European Union’s (Chen and Reklev, 2013b).

4 The Chinese hydropower sector and hydropower-related emissions

China is a large country with a total land area of 9,596,961 square kilometers. It has due to its sheer size, an extremely diverse climate, ranging from tropical in the south (53°30′ N) to subarctic in the north (18°15′N). Its span from east to west is approximately 74°E to 134°30′°E. In terms of altitude the country has the greatest range in the world due to the presence of the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest (8,849 m) in the autonomous region of Tibet, coupled with the world's fourth-lowest point in the Turpan Depression (−154m). For the hydropower sector, the significance of such numbers relates to the fact that whilst any release of GHG quantities varies case by case (Soumis, 2004), there are several parameters/factors that influence GHG emissions from freshwater reservoirs including morphology, depth, temperature and age. Emissions from a given hydroelectric reservoir also depend on locality: climatic conditions, weather, the predominant soil and vegetation types/quantity, temperature and residence time of the water (IHA, 2012; Dixon, 2010). Taking climatic conditions as an example, St Louis et al (2000) place the CH4emissions produced by reservoirs in the tropics at 90% of the total. In the case of CO2this figure drops to 40% but is still considered substantial.

China is by far the most active developer of hydropower, dwarfing the contributions of the rest of the world. In 2010 the country was also the leading producer of hydroelectricity with 722 TWh of electricity generated or one-fifth of the world total. Under the 12thFYP it is envisioned that by 2015:

Hydropower installed capacity will reach 290 GW, including 260 GW from conventional hydropower and 30 GW from pumped storage hydropower plants. By 2020, hydropower installed capacity will reach 420 GW, including 350 GW from conventional hydropower and 70 GW from pumped storage hydropower plants -CNEA and CNREC (2011)

China presented 1,145 hydropower projects to the CDM for evaluation. During this time 98% were registered, 1.7% were rejected and a smaller percentage was withdrawn. This success rate helped the hydro sector contribute to 15% of all the Chinese CDM registered projects. The large and small scale projects came under the methodologies ACM0002 and AMS-I.D. respectively and in the UNFCCC database are referred to as Grid Connected Renewable Electricity Generation.Figure 1shows the evolution of Chinese CDM projects over time.

The annual certified reductions for Chinese CDM projects peaked in 2012 and accounted for 6.7 million tonnes CO2-eq (Figure 2). Assuming a standard life cycle analysis of 10 years for every CDM project the total amount of carbon avoided is around 1.5 billion tonnes CO2-eq.

Fig. 1CDM certified Hydropower Projects in China Elaborated by the Authors.

Fig. 2China CO2-eq Reduction per annum Elaboration by Authors.

Hydropower in China is currently classified into five categories (I-V) by the State Economic and Trade Commission6under regulation DL5180 2003. Small hydro is represented by the latter categories of IV (< 50 MW to greater or equal to 10 MW) and V (between 10 MW and 1 MW). Large hydro, can meanwhile be extremely large - classification starts at a greater than 300 MW installed capacity or a gross reservoir capacity greater or equal to 100,000,000 m3! Such large sizes, involve dam structures which are known to cause negative impacts to the environment (Beck et al., 2012). Nevertheless:

In China the most common viewpoint at present, is that, taking into full account the environmental impact of hydropower and minimizing this impact before and during hydropower projects, there is no doubt that hydropower is indeed a valuable and feasible renewable energy resource with near-zero CO2emissions - Liu H (2012).

The sheer size of the Chinese hydro sector means that the cumulative effect of hydropower installation on China’s rivers could be substantial. Furthermore, hydro based developments and accelerated growth in China is not only considered possible but inevitable because only 15% of the identified 330 million kilowatts has been utilised (Liu, 2012). Ecological damage however may be minimised and managed to the extent that other factors such as considerable emission reductions, autonomous electricity supply, protection of forests, training and employment opportunities have a greater weighting in the final decision (Whittington, 2007).

A large and growing amount of academic material indicates that the hydroelectric reservoirs once considered a pollutant free and carbon neutral energy, and even said to be so on many Excel sheet project calculations on the CDM website, may not in fact be carbon neutral. Under certain circumstances hydropower can even generate a net addition to GHG emissions. Such concerns have been raised in China by Li and Liu (2012) who urge caution in the face of substantial GHG emissions into the atmosphere. The Communist Party did however pass a law that states that all vegetation below the flood line of reservoirs must be cleared,7This leads to a lower supply of organic matter and a reduced production of methane from sediments.in order to reduce the intense pulse of CH4to the atmosphere (Farrer 2007) that accompanies the flooding of a reservoir.

Nitrous oxides (N2O), the third of the important infra-red absorbing gases, can also contribute substantially to hydropower’s anthropogenic global warming. Higher than average N2O concentrations and eutrophic conditions have been observed in China, where the sheer number of manmade lake ecosystems (including those serving hydroelectric stations) are thought to hold a pivotal role in curbing climate change (Liu et al., 2011).

Other issues which require more attention are the drawdown zones of temperate regions after 2012 research by Deemer and Glavin found a 20-fold and 36-fold methane emission increase when the reservoir water level was drawn down in Lacamas Lake, Canada (Sorenson, 2012). In the case of the Three Gorges, onethird of the reservoir is a drawdown region and given that its surface area is the size of Hong Kong — that is a significant source of methane (Yan, 2012).

That said, when compared to Chinese thermal generation which has an emission intensity of between 1,188.8 g CO2/kWh and 1,341.9 g CO2/kWh (Liu S et al 2012), even the worst case hydropower in temperate regions, with a 65-72 g CO2/kWh registered only following decaying flooded biomass (Hondo, 2005), has an almost two magnitudes lower emission intensity. The 340 g-CO2kWh registered in tropical zones (Weisser, 2007) whilst notably higher than hydropower in temperate zones is considerably less than fossil fuel based generation. Meanwhile, a 10 MW SHP plant with a small reservoir (2,000 m3volume, penstock 9,000 m, pressure pipe 490 m, 45% capacity factor, with a plant lifetime of 30 years) has according to Hondo (2005) a carbon emission intensity of 11.3 g CO2/kWh. This value does not however take into consideration those emissions caused by biomass decay or that produced in transmission and distribution). Turconi et al. (2013) showed that if included the emission intensity could increase to 20 g CO2/kWh. In the best case scenario in terms of emissions, a small run-of-the-river installation with no reservoir will have a near zero emissions intensity of 2-5 g CO2/kWh (Turconi et al., 2013) but will never be a seriously contender with thermal generating systems.

5 Discussion

Multiply any net GHG release by China’s 2020 installed hydropower capacity (the summation of which is greater than every one of the other top seven hydropower producers across the world (Cheng, 2012) and the sector becomes potentially integral to short-term CO2mitigation and a valuable and feasible fossil fuel alternative of near zero emissions.

For this to move from potential into reality, there is a need for more research into hydropower, as there remains an obvious lack of data on emission patterns for reservoirs in several regions of the world (Zheng et al., 2011) especially in the major dam building ones such as China where there are no or little measurements (Parekh 2011). The few published studies on GHG including those from Chinese hydropower projects such as that of Zhang et al. (2007) advocate the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) approach, as the most capable of assessing the direct and indirect emissions arising from the Cradle (material extraction and manufacture) to the Grave (decommission or re-habilitation).

For a comprehensively undertaken LCA for hydropower, the authors strongly recommend that information pertaining to reservoir location, age, size and the pre-existing ecosystem is published (not necessarily publically) and verified by satellite data and GIS mapping. This will support the construction of a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI). Such information can come from the Environmental Impact Assessment (that of the single installation) and the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) (that of the entire catchment). This will ensure that any forecasted carbon reductions are comprehensively noted i.e. how many trees were felled and vegetation flooded to construct the dam.

During the operation stages, water depth and its residence time should be monitored and recorded at reasonable timeframes by automated computer software, when appropriate. The technology adopted and other operational features should also be noted. This of course can be difficult due to unique nature of hydropower sites which means that any LCA should be treated with extreme caution (IEA, 2000), especially whilst there remains no scientific consensus on methods for estimating GHG emissions from hydropower (Steinhurst et al., 2012). Thus methodological disparities8between two independent researchers, given the subjective nature of where one places the barriers, for value judgements and subjective weighting of criteria, reflecting epistemological as well as moral and esthetic values (Anex and Focht, 2002), data scarcity (Wernet et al., 2008) and even data sensitivity (commercial confidentiality, fisheries data for example) can all present a complex barrier and lead to imperfect solutions such as proxies.

Once the information needed for a SEA, an EIA (a legal requirement in China) and LCA is collected the degree of sustainability for each type of hydropower process, installation or even catchment area should become more apparent. Until such data is available, on a national database, it is perhaps wise to for the sake of the precautionary principle, to only allow those installations with less than 15 MW capacity (and with a greater than 4 W/m2power density) entry into the carbon market.

Internationally the ISO 14040:2006 standard has defined four essential stages for the development of a LCA. Figure 3 indicates how the LCA can be used in the hydropower sector to evaluate the perceived carbon reductions along the lifetime of a given project.

Table 1, found in the Appendix, is the authors’ “LCA Roadmap for Hydropower” for beginning the process of GHG estimation for the Chinese hydro sector. It should not be the sole method, nor should it be given absolute authority in the decision making process. Yet should the right incentive for collaboration be found those in the hydro sector should be able to collate some, if not most, of the information required. A final consideration, given the reasonable longevity of a hydropower installation, is the need for accurate climate modelling and climate scenarios as components of a spatial-temporal LCA that is calculated over a long enough interval to address all effects stemming from the facility and its fuel lifecycle, which in the case of hydropower is the entire watershed (Zhang et al., 2007). Depending on installation size the life of the project will vary, based on the mechanical wear and tear of working parts. SHP installations have a typical working life of no more than 50 years whilst their bigger counterparts can have a lifespan of up to 100 years.

A 100 year interval is incidentally recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and has been adopted by the UNFCCC for global warming potential (GWP) comparisons. The authors consider it important that the reader is aware that the two concepts: LCA interval and GWP time effect should not be mixed or used interchangeably. The GWP does however dictate the timeframe that should be considered for any impact evaluation.

Fig. 3Stage of the LCA for the reduction of GHG for hydropower projects, based on the international standard ISO 14040. Elaboration by Authors.

The International Center on Small Hydro Power under the auspices of the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) and UNIDO, based in Hangzhou, China, have experience in applying a methodology that could be used in the hydro sector for the development of a fair and transparent carbon market - the Green Hydro pilot scheme. If utilised appropriately, it is a useful stepping stone for the Ministry of Water Resources to assess the sector’s influence on the Chinese embryonic carbon market. Whilst the data collected (Table 2) does not specifically address emissions it has helped uncover some of the difficulties likely to be faced in doing so. One such issue is a lack of hydrological data, which makes it inconceivably difficult to know expected energy production over time - a key factor if one is to make reasonable emission estimates.

Management of sustainability does however entail more than a methodology. It requires a proper policy structure built on political will and technical competence to set strong but attainable carbon targets. Once an emission target has been established a trigger value (derived from accurate and verifiable reporting) must be stated.

A robust management tool for offsetting under that given target is the GHG Protocol, developed the World Resources Institute (WRI) in 2005. It effectively forces a company or public entity or even a city to consider their activities and implement changes from an executive board, rather than project or facility, level. Such undertakings, in the authors’ opinion, reduce the likelihood of duplicate effort and stimulate corporate holistic thinking as a precursor to innovative practices and a low carbon economy. The March 2013 launch of The Global Protocol for Community-Scale GHG Emissions has captured the interests of China with its 36 national pilot low-carbon cities (Fong et al., 2013). It is the authors’ recommendation that the MWR works within the reporting guidelines as established by the WRI to ensure that all owners of hydropower and associated facilities report emissions in way that is relevant, complete, consistent, transparent and accurate as put forward by the International Emissions Trading Association (Aalders and Haefeli-Hestvik, 2012). Collaboration between the WRI and MWR would provide legitimacy to any technical data used to evaluate the performance of a hydropower installation or an owner of such facilities. If all hydropower installations and owners were encouraged to adopt the standards of the GHG Protocol, as a baseline for a LCA and a rudimentary indicator of the carbon emissions prevented from entering the atmosphere as a consequence of the hydropower sector and clean energy technology.

The process of preventing a tonne of carbon from entering the atmosphere is that which gives its distinctive characteristic. And, if it is the process not the product that separates one mol of carbon dioxide from theother and subsequently a given set of benefits a project can receive, it must be measurable and verifiable.It must also be transparent.This would then effectively mean the sale of carbon is a transparent fair transaction, free of conflicts of interest and beyond reproach from the national and international community. This is because the carbon credit is dissociated with everything as practicably possible except the physical/chemical composition of the Infra-Red absorbing molecule that the credit represents, its aggregated GWP and its acceptance as a means to reduce anthropogenic global warming.

This is therefore why market mechanisms such as levies, tax incentives (including exemptions) should be used to compensate a company for an innovative practice, technology or process9This does not necessarily mean innovative on a global level as there is much scope for the implementation of fish friendly turbines, for example, in Chinese refurbished installations.. Such a tax system (for example) could be modelled on the already existing measures put forward as early as 1994 when the Ministry of Finance and the State Tax Department passed a favourable policy for the development for small hydro deployment with a value added tax break10Which has stood at 6% since that time (compared to a 17% tax rate for larger installations).. Additional fiscal measures that already exist are the complete removal of all taxes (for some SHP installations) during the first two years and a reduced levy in the following three (Zhao and Zhu, 2004), which is something that could be easily imposed in a carbon offset scheme. The MWR should advise the NDRC appropriately and decide the exact stratification of the fiscal system which rewards the most sustainable options.

Finally wider implications of China’s application of the concepts and methods discussed here should have global implications for those emerging and even developed nations of North and South America which have substantial hydroelectricity based power generation. Other offsetting methods and alternatives power generating technologies could also benefit from the discourse and subsequent recommendations presented in this paper. Stakeholder communication, part of a wider academic LCA discussion, should also be considered so as to close the cycle and bring the benefits of the LCA to those people affected by a given or various hydropower installations.

The Communist Party’s highly centralised decision-making system has previously not always engaged in the stakeholder process, which can impact good-decision making. This process is, in the authors’ opinion, essential should an embryonic system eventually evolve by becoming increasingly integrated and standardised.

6 Conclusion

Hydropower is a mature and well developed renewable technology in China which has found great application in the CDM. Undoubtedly it will now play an important role in the embryonic Chinese carbon markets of 2014. The “LCA Roadmap” for use in the hydropower sector and some of the broader recommendations provided within it will support the greater integration and involvement of the hydropower sector in the regional carbon emission schemes. The following recommendations are taken from the discussion:

1) Ensure that the hydro sector is governed in a way that helps protect it and its investors from the supply and demand issues experienced by the UN’s CDM by:

a) Ensuring the sale of carbon is a transparent fair transaction, free of conflicts of interest and beyond reproach from the national and international community. The carbon credit is dissociated with everything as practicably possible except the physical/chemical composition of the IR absorbing molecule that the credit represents, its aggregated GWP and its acceptance as a means to reduce anthropogenic global warming.

b) Market mechanisms such as levies, tax incentives (including exemptions) should be used to compensate a hydropower owner for an innovative practice, technology or process. A tax system (for example) could be modelled on already existing measures put forward for the hydro sector in 1994. The MWR should decide the exact stratification of fiscal system which rewards more sustainable options.

c) A key consideration is an appropriate trigger value whereby investment for innovative practices or products is slightly cheaper than paying for a permit and continuing with Business as Usual. In order to set this trigger value (or threshold) accurate and verifiable reporting is required.

2) The MWR should collaborate with the WRI, Beijing under the GHG Protocol to provide legitimacy to any technical data used to evaluate the performance of a hydropower installation or an owner of such facilities.

3) Verify the data provided regarding hydropower installations and watersheds through various means such as GIS, aerial photography and the cross-referencing of records.

4) Use of the SEA and the already prescribed EIA as tools to input information into the LCA. The first one provides the necessary scope to look at the entire watershed so that the cumulative impact of hydropower schemes across a river can be analysed.

5) Collect information such as that provided in Table 2 for a LCA. Such information should include the components and various life stages expected in the conceptualisation, construction, operation, maintenance and rehabilitation or demolition of a hydro scheme.

6) Any impact evaluation should be undertaken for a 100 year interval as does the GWP as recommended by the IPCC since 2006 and adopted under the UFCCC. Intervals for a LCA depend on the size of the hydropower installation. Given that most SHP stations in China have a project lifespan of 30 years and no more than 50 years the LCA must likewise follow the project timeframe. Should the project refer to large hydropower the LCA should take into consideration up to 100 years and should begin as soon as impoundments are dug. When refurbishments are undertaken, as they are in China, the LCA should be extended according to expected lifespan of new replacement parts.

7) Evaluate and learn from hydro or emissions related pilot studies such as Green Hydro.

8) Adopt a precautionary principle whilst data is uncertain. A 15 MW hydropower installation capacity is a good baseline as it supports technological capability for turnkey solutions with other small-scale projects. Maintain the power density threshold for hydropower registered for the carbon scheme at > 4 W/m2

9) Facilitate stakeholder dialogue and provide appropriate incentives to encourage the disclosure of data.

Finally where appropriate these recommendations should be transferred to other renewable energy technologies and sectors in order support the Chinese State Government´s low carbon priorities and emission cut targets under the subsequent 13thand 14thfive year plans. Other countries such as Brazil and Venezuela who also have a strong hydroelectricity component within their power sector could also benefit from the Chinese example.

Acknowledgements

All at ICSHP but especially: Liu Heng, Hu Xiaobo and Huang Yan. Also to Alfonso Buj Laborda, Edward Simpson (University of Abertay Dundee) José Ignacio Fau Vidal, Katy Yan (International Rivers), Wang Xie Ji and A Yang.

Appendixes

Table 1.An LCA Roadmap for Hydropower Factors, Considerations and Recommendations for Undertaking a LCA for Hydropower

· Running in AC or DC, fibre optics and distances/terrain needed to be covered · It’s component parts, life expectancy whether it’s a central thermal plant or a diesel generator ciencies and unsafe or unexpected conditions which could result in down time and the need to engage backup power Construction and Installation Operation and Maintenance · The main material and energy flows involved · Whether land is inundated for the creation of a reservoir. Should flooding occur this is the single largest contributor to GHG (Modahl 2010). · Type of hydropower installation constructed (run of river or reservoir) and the materials with which it is constructed i.e. earth/rock/reinforced concrete · Dam capacity · Cumulative effects of further installations down stream · The energy and emissions from construction machinery operations and transportation (Zhang et al 2007). · Whether the hydropower station is seasonal (i.e. functional in rainy season only) or particularly prone to drought · The greatest uncertainty for GHG emissions due to fluxes and other phenomena associated with the reservoir occurs in this stage · Water Use · Cement, concrete, steel, explosives, fuels and lubricants - their provision and their involvement in construction make up a significant contribution to the environmental and emission impact (Ribeiro & Anderi da Silva 2010). · If flooding is necessary - Methane emissions increase when greater biodegradable material is available post flooding · The ecological effect of various of smaller hydropower installations compared to one larger one can be greater than that of the single larger one. · This is likely to include access paths as heavy machinery typically requires wider or flatter paths in which to work in. Also one should include the diesel burnt and distances travelled. · Is thermal or another form of back-up power necessary? If so how frequently is it expected to be operational · Depends on many issues such as climate, water/air temperature, depth of reservoir, technology and operation implemented, age and previous ecosystem (whether clearance occurred) · Changes in quality, flow velocity, oxygenation and its course (where it flows) · Inventory data is available in the “Life Cycle Inventories of Hydroelectric Power Generation” by Ribeiro and Anderi da Silva (2010) and Flury and Frischknect (2012). · To ensure that the Chinese policy for vegetation clearing is maintained and supported to minimise methane. · Utilisation of the Strategic Environmental Assessment not just the Environmental Impact Assessment to evaluate the collective impact of hydro installations along a catchment · A paper by Moreau et al (2012) show how Kriging and cokriging can be used to improve the statistical estimation of a hydroelectric power plant LCA. · The recent paper by Pfister et al (2004) provides a useful LCA analysis of water footprint by hydroelectricity installations. Although this does not relate to carbon emissions it is a key factor as communities require clean water air to prosper Decommission or Rehabilitation · Recycling · Rehabilitation · Demolition · Future uncertainties on technological and legal developments and the value of resources makes it difficult to assess this possibility · Whether re-habilitation is finan-

cially sensible and/or suitable · The practice of large dam demolition is uncommon except where safety or ecosystem damage is considered severe. · Demolishing a large dam is an energy intensive process which can damage an ecosystem adapted to its presence (Isambert & Crepon 2004).

Table 2.Example data collection from the Chinese Green Hydro Scheme Source: Anonymous ICSHP/MWR member of staff (2012)

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†Corresponding author.

Email address: whitingke@fcirce.es (K. Whiting).

ISSN 2325-6192, eISSN 2325-6206/$- see front materials © 2014 L&H Scientific Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.

10.5890/JEAM.2014.03.007