Assessment of the prospect of using the hydropower potential in the operating water-supply and irrigation systems of Savropol krai (Russia)

Abstract

At the present stage of the development of the industry and agricultural production in the South and North Caucasus regions of the Russian Federation where over 23 million people (16.3% of the Russian Federation population) live, one of the major problems is the use of the renewables: wind and solar energy, hydro energy potential of the river systems and operating hydraulic structures within the water-supply and irrigation systems, geothermal waters, wastes of livestock production and crop production and the potential of forest biomass [1, 6, 7, 21]. Under the influence of the ingoing flows of solar energy as a primary and main source of the life on the Earth, the global hydrological cycle (577, 000 km3) takes place and makes conditions for the natural hydrological processes in the formation of water resources in the spatial limits of the river basin geo-systems which are used and have the big prospect for their utilization as a renewable energy source of electricity generation by hydroelectric power stations and pumped storage hydroelectric power plants. The development of electricity generating capacities by small hydropower engineering is one of the most promising directions in view of the existing growth of energy consumption all over the world and in the Russian Federation in particular [2, 4]