Hydropower development on Glacial lakes

As much as 69% of the world’s fresh water is stored in glaciers around the world. As these glaciers begin to melt and recede, they will leave behind a significant storage volume of water at high elevations. This combination of water storage and elevation presents unique and relatively untapped possibilities for-hydropower development.Early estimates put the potentially developable hydropower from these glacial-basins at over 1300 TW-h per year. While hydroelectric development of these lakes might avoid some of the typical perceived environmental challenges associated with hydropower, such as the flooding large amounts of otherwise useable land, there are also significant hazards that must be addressed-before development can be considered. Some of these issues include access, harsh climatic conditions, transmission constraints, the use of un-engineered natural moraine dams as part, or all, of the water-retention strategy and dealing with all of the typical hazards that confront hydroelectric developments in mountainous regions including flash flooding, landslides, debris flows and the reservoir sedimentation.

This paper discusses some of these issues and explores the potential that these developments have to-reduce the greenhouse gas emissions regionally throughout the world to help address the commitments that were made as part of the Paris Climate Accord.