Sustainable Development of the Micro-hydropower Benefit for Water-food-energy Nexus of Irrigated Agriculture

Micro-hydropower is necessary renewable energy to provide baseload, and it has the advantages of sustainable development and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. There is an interrelationship between irrigation water and energy from micro-hydropower with micro-hydropower development in agricultural irrigation systems. Li et al. (2019) mentioned that the agricultural system estimated the water supply-demand, energy supply-demand, land demand, and food production and was quantitatively analyzed under different scenarios. However, the study of water for electricity generation was neglected in the agricultural system. Zhou et al. (2019) apply small-hydropower into water supply systems to lift renewable power output and uplifting the synergistic benefits of the Water-Food-Energy (WFE) Nexus steered by the optimal water allocation and small-hydropower installation. Still, the adjustment of the water source by the reservoir makes the flow of the water supply system unstable, which leads to inconsistent electricity generation of small hydropower. Gaudard et al. (2018) research that hydropower plants' relationship between water and energy is set upstream. The results show that seasonality slightly affects hydroelectric power generation.Therefore, the study set up a micro-hydropower generation system in the Linnei channel of the Zhuoshuixi river watershed in the middle of Taiwan. Collected channel background information and used Doppel (Teledyne StreamPro ADCP) to measure the water level, velocity, and discharge of the study site, analyze potential power generation, and evaluate the profit and payback period micro-hydropower generation and the impact of micro- hydropower systems in agriculture. Furthermore, to investigate the relationship nexus of WFE and assess micro-hydropower's effectiveness in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. According to the results of this study, it can be used as a reference basis for setting up other micro-hydropower systems in the future.