Egypt’s Qattara Depression Potential Hydropower
Abstract
The Qattara Depression is the largest and the deepest depression in the north western desert as a part of Egypt. The lowest point in the depression is founded at a level 134 m below sea level and is located at the south western part of the depression.
An attempt has been made to investigate the hydrological elements which affect the water balance of the Qattara region and to ascertain the numerical values of the hydrological coefficients in the light of the observed climatic data of the region and evaporation results.
The evaluation of potential hydropower production due to conveying certain flow rates to the Qattara Depression and the corresponding surface level variations are to be investigated.
Estimation of initial cost, internal rate of return (IRR) and benefit to cost ratio (B/C) for each of the proposed alternatives have been evaluated after 100 years. It reveals that optimum value of the flow to be conveyed to the depression is 6000m3/sec for the mixed pumped-storage scheme to produce 2.8 GW.