14 DAY TRIAL // A new research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science documents how the practice of cutting trees affects hydropower in tropical rainforest regions.
It appears that, once one too many trees are cut, local natural balance finds itself greatly disturbed. More precisely, high deforestation rates need be linked to reduced rainfall.
Given the fact that hydropower is all about using water in order to generate electricity, it need not come as a surprise that dams located in areas affected by deforestation are likely to experience a drop in their electricity generating capacity. Mongabay quotes specialist Claudia M. Stickler of the International Program at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, who wished to make the following observations:
“The problem is that power plant designers typically ignore the effects of future deforestation. Or, if they do consider it, they presume that deforestation will increase the amount of water flowing to the dams.”
“When we incorporated the effects of deforestation at the regional level, our results show quite the opposite.”
Both Claudia M. Stickler and her fellow researchers explain that, unless deforestation rates are kept a close eye on and carefully controlled, investing whopping amounts of money into harvesting hydropower might one day turn out to be a futile endeavor.
According to their estimates, forest loss around the Xingu River in the Amazon would curb the Belo Monte dam's energy generating potential by roughly 75%.
The Belo Monte dam is still under construction, yet once up and running, it will be the world's third largest.
Therefore, this particular piece of news is something that investors in this project might wish to give due consideration to.
As these specialists put it, greater rainforest covers mean more water flowing in rivers, and this in turn translates into more hydropower available for human society to use.
“Ending deforestation should be viewed as an issue of national energy security,” researcher Dan Nepstad summed up the findings of this investigation.