Wu Xutong, Yan Zihan, Yang Haiyan, Wang Shuai, Zhang Haoyu, Shen Yilin, Song Shuang, Liu Yanxu, Guo Ying, Yang Dawen, Fu Bojie
State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Hazards Risk Governance, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Nat Commun. 2025 Mar 15;16(1):2566. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-57891-7.
Hydropower, an important renewable energy source worldwide, is threatened by reservoir sedimentation. Ecological restoration (ER) can mitigate this by reducing upstream sediment, thereby extending hydropower facilities' lifespan. However, ER may also reduce runoff, potentially diminishing energy generation and complicating its overall impact on hydropower potential. Here, we examine China's Yellow River, once the world's most sediment-laden river, using eco-hydrological and reservoir regulation models to assess how large-scale ER influences the hydropower potential of the Xiaolangdi Reservoir, which controls 92.3% of the basin area. Our results indicate that, excluding upstream reservoirs' operations and socioeconomic water use, Xiaolangdi could generate a total of ~2.7×10 kWh of energy before facing diminished flexibility and efficiency caused by the exhaustion of sediment storage-57.3% more than without ER-equating to an additional ~100 billion kWh. This enhancement in hydropower potential primarily arises from the extended lifespan, despite a 6.9% reduction in average annual energy generation. These findings advance our understanding of the ecosystem-water-sediment-energy nexus, offering valuable insights for integrated watershed management globally.
水电作为全球重要的可再生能源，正受到水库淤积的威胁。生态修复（ER）可以通过减少上游泥沙来缓解这一问题，从而延长水电设施的使用寿命。然而，生态修复也可能减少径流，潜在地降低发电量，并使其对水电潜力的总体影响变得复杂。在此，我们以中国的黄河为例，黄河曾是世界上含沙量最高的河流，我们使用生态水文和水库调度模型来评估大规模生态修复如何影响控制流域面积92.3%的小浪底水库的水电潜力。我们的结果表明，排除上游水库运行和社会经济用水，小浪底水库在因泥沙库容耗尽而导致灵活性和效率降低之前，总共可发电约2.7×10千瓦时，比没有生态修复时多57.3%，相当于额外增加约1000亿千瓦时。尽管年均发电量减少了6.9%，但水电潜力的这种增强主要源于使用寿命的延长。这些发现增进了我们对生态系统-水-泥沙-能源关系的理解，为全球综合流域管理提供了宝贵的见解。
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