Potential Impact of Climate Change on Hydropower Generation in Southern Taiwan

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of climate change on Taiwan's hydroelectric generating capacity based on the river discharge of the GWLF simulations which were carried out by using rainfall and temperature data from four GCMs. The river discharge change of kaoping river under climate change scenarios A2 and B2 was used to assess the climate change impact on hydropower generation. The results indicated that the range of river discharge variation was -26%-15% in the dry season and -10-82% in the wet season. The potential impact on hydropower generation can be roughly estimated as the previous discharge variation.