Water and carbon footprints for Vidraru hydropower development, Romania

Abstract

Although the important positive effects that lakes have ondevelopment at the regional level and beyond, they also have a negativeimpact related to the large amounts of water that they can consume byevaporation. This paper quantifies the effects that one of the largestartificial lakes in Romania (with complex use) has on the environment byestimating the blue water footprint and the carbon footprint. Thus, ananalysis is made of the evolution of the blue water footprint and carbonintensity (calculated for a 100-year life cycle) for 16 years and Pearsoncorrelation coefficients for these indicators are investigated. During the2008-2023 study period, the mean water footprint for the Vidraruhydropower plant was 5.07 m3/GJ and the carbon intensity varies between7.1 to 5.24 gCO2/kWh, with a polynomial trend. Those results are in goodagreement compared with the literature presenting results related to largereservoirs.