INL to be Partner in Brazil Hydropower Project

INL to be Partner in Brazil Hydropower Project

Representatives from the Brazilian government's energy planning agency-- Empresa de Pesquisas Energ?ticas (EPE) -- today signed the final agreement needed to move forward with the most comprehensive hydropower assessment study ever undertaken in Brazil. The agreement was signed earlier today in Rio de Janeiro. It is a joint venture between the government of Brazil, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Hydro Partners do Brasil, and environmental groups. The purpose is to provide a tool for policymakers and developers that are planning to build new hydropower generation in Brazil.

Idaho Senator Larry Craig welcomed the news and praised the work, "Hydropower continues to be a major new source of non-emitting energy. Brazil is hungry for new energy sources, and I am proud of the role the INL is playing to support hydroelectric generation, which contributes no greenhouse gases to our global climate." The U.S. Energy Information Agency estimates that Brazil will need an additional 21.8 million tons of coal, or the equivalent, to meet its needs from 2003 to 2030.

The project capitalizes on state-of-the-art methodologies developed by INL in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Three-dimensional hydrography is derived from elevation maps and validated using two-dimensional stream maps. Doug Hall, the INL project manager, states, "The present study will provide a comprehensive inventory of all the country's natural stream water energy resources by virtual analysis in the time it would take to ground survey less than a handful of major river systems."

The data will be available to the public, free of charge, via the Internet. Hall emphasized, "This will go beyond just showing symbols on a map - it provides attribute data for any feature that is displayed. The collection of all this data in one application will provide perspectives of Brazil that few have seen before."

The estimated project cost is $15 million. Joining the INL in the work are Hydropartners of Ohio, the International Utility Efficiency Partnerships in Washington, D.C., and the USGS. They will be working in Brazil with Empresa de Pesquisas Energ?ticas (Brazil's energy planning agency), Projetos e Consultorias de Engenharia, and Ecology Brasil.

http://craig.senate.gov/releases/pr121306a.cfm