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Hy:Con: A Strategic Tool For Balancing Hydropower Development And Conservation Needs
Author(s) -
Seliger C.,
Scheikl S.,
Schmutz S.,
Schinegger R.,
Fleck S.,
Neubarth J.,
Walder C.,
Muhar S.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
river research and applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.679
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1535-1467
pISSN - 1535-1459
DOI - 10.1002/rra.2985
Subject(s) - hydropower , directive , renewable energy , water framework directive , business , production (economics) , small hydro , habitats directive , environmental resource management , energy conservation , energy planning , environmental planning , attractiveness , environmental science , environmental economics , european union , ecology , computer science , economics , biology , psychology , macroeconomics , psychoanalysis , water quality , programming language , economic policy
Hydropower (HP) is an important renewable energy source contributing 65.7% to Austria's national electricity generation. However, HP is also associated with ecosystem degradations jeopardizing the aims of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Habitats Directive. Based on the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED), the Austrian Energy Strategy has defined goals to further increase HP production by 3.5 TWh until 2015. Because national strategies for HP development are widely missing, hydropower plants (HPPs) are planned and approved on a local and regional level, often neglecting the overall optimum for energy supply and ecology. Therefore, a decision support tool (Hy:Con) was developed to integrate the energy‐economic characteristics of planned HPPs and conservation needs of ecologically sensible river stretches. Based on 102 planned HPPs in Austria, Hy:Con identified HPPs with high economic attractiveness and low conservation concerns. The results show that owing to the already high HP exploitation in Austria, only a minor number of projects are without conservation conflicts. Upgrading of existing HPPs was associated with least ecological impacts, while HPPs with reservoirs are favoured over run‐of‐river plants. Cumulated ecological effects of numerous small HPPs are significant, whereas their contribution to overall energy production is comparatively small. Hy:Con represents a strategic instrument that can help decision makers to govern the implementation of the RED and WFD in a transparent way to pinpoint the limitations of future HP development and to avoid conflicts and stranded investments. © 2015 The Autors. River Research and Applications Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd